Both events may seem a long way off. After all, the Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa does not deliver his address until October 11 this year to what will be a newly-elected, third SAR Legislative Council. And the Financial Secretary, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, will not present his 2001-2002 Budget to the Legco until a date to be set in March next year.

Assessment of the options for both speeches is, however, already well under way within the government and it will not be too long before they open to public discussion. This is especially the case for the Budget planning which is always the subject of wide consultation in the political and broader community. Certainly, the Budget consultation process will pick up pace soon after the September 20 Legco elections.

There are, of course, the inevitable links between the two, with policy initiatives outlined in the Chief Executive's annual Legco Address often being fleshed out and funded in the subsequent Budget. This means that the Chamber's submissions need to be consistent, although there is usually still time after the Policy Address to make Budget submission adjustments, should they be necessary.

This year's Policy Address will be vitally important, with the Chief Executive likely to seek to address some of the issues obviously still of concern to the community despite the quite outstanding recovery in the economy. The property market, the environment, education, health, the plight of small business, continuing asset and consumer price deflation, are some of the key issues likely to attract attention.

Each year the Chamber gives its members and the broader business community many opportunities to play a role in the policy formulation process, but none are as important as the annual submissions on the Policy Address and the annual Budget. In both cases, the Chamber attempts to focus primarily on the concerns of its members and this year will be no exception. But it is also anxious to take into account any additional concerns of the broader SAR business community, both local and international.

Time is of the essence in ensuring these two important submissions get to government in the early stages of the planning process for the drafting of the respective speeches for each event. This year the Chamber aims to have the Policy Address submission in the government's hands by early September and the Budget submission soon after the Policy Address is actually delivered on October 11.

We welcome members' input to both submissions, so if you would like to make suggestions on what ought to be included in either of these submissions I would urge you to get in touch with our Chief Economist as soon as possible. He is now well into the process of gathering members' views on their content. Remember that time is of the essence if the Chamber is to make a meaningful contribution to policy formulation.

In conjunction with the formulation of its budget submission this year the Chamber is also conducting a survey of members related to the taxation review announced by the Financial Secretary in last year's Budget. You should have already received this survey and many have already been completed and returned. If you have not yet completed yours and returned it to the Chamber, please do so as soon as possible.