Financial Secretary Henry Tang says the Government will participate actively in deliberations on WTO services talks and will scrutinise all proposals to safeguard Hong Kong's interests.

Mr Tang told lawmakers today that being an economy heavily dependent on trade in services, Hong Kong attaches great importance to services negotiations.

"While we welcome the development of any means and targets which can help push forward the services negotiations and achieve a substantive and balanced outcome, we consider that the need to allow sufficient flexibility for developing country members should be duly respected," Mr Tang said.

He said the issue of whether basic public services such as the supply of water, medical and health, and education services should be regarded as "services supplied in the exercise of governmental authority" is not a subject for negotiations in the Doha Development Agenda, and it will not be discussed at the coming Ministerial Conference.

"In short, basic public services such as water, healthcare and education provided by the Government are outside the ambit of the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services," he said.