A high-ranking Hong Kong official welcomed Tuesday the prompt reaction of the National People's Congress Standing Committee to the report submitted by Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa on constitutional development.

The NPC standing committee decided Monday to discuss Tung's report submitted on April 15, when it meets on April 25 and 26.

Speaking to the media after the Executive Council meeting, Chief Secretary for Administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government Donald Tsang said that the move has shown the importance which the central authorities have attached to Hong Kong's constitutional development issues.

"I am sure they would look at and examine the report of the Chief Executive as well as the analysis we have made in the report of the Constitutional Development Task Force on this matter," he added.

Tsang heads up the three-member task force, whose other members are Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam and Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung. The task force will visit the city of Shenzhen in south China on April 22 at the standing committee's invitation to brief their representatives on its second report.

At the meeting, Tsang said the task force will repeat the messages and conclusions it has drawn in the second report - which represents a broad spectrum of Hong Kong people's views on constitutional development.

Source: Xinhua