【答案解析】今天早晨能有机会代表北美工业卡车联盟向各位致词，我感到非常兴奋。我还要感谢今天早晨各位的到来，特别要感谢史密斯主席的光临。在过去的十年里，通过合并与兼并购置，我们迅速壮大。这不仅是因为维持竞争力需要提高生产效率，而且还为了向我们越来越多的国际上的客户提供他们所能习惯的一贯服务。
我们所关心的是：能了解别的市场，能得知世界其他地区的顾客的需求，能生产出更好更安全的起重卡车。在历史上，市场经济曾为驾驶员们提供更好的产品以及具有竞争力的价格，这当然是事实。但是我们知道，一些人甚至深刻体会到，仅仅对市场的需求做出反应是不够的。我们必须采取一种主动的姿态，必须设法预测到顾客明天的需求。这就是为什么我们相信这次大会的价值的原因所在。 [解析]
I am excited to have the opportunity this morning to address you on behalf of the North American Industrial Truck Association. I also would like to thank you all for coming and especially President Smith for joining us this morning. In the past ten years we have been growing rapidly through mergers and acquisitions. This was triggered not only because of the need to increase production efficiency to stay competitive but also to provide our more and more international customers with the same services they are used to.
To be able to learn about other markets, to hear about the needs of customers in other parts of the world, to produce better and safer lift trucks, those are our all concerns. Certainly it is true, that the market economies historically provided the drivers for better products and competitive prices. But we all learned, some of us the hard way, that it is not enough to just react to the demands of the market. We have to take a pro-active stand. We have to try to predict tomorrow"s needs of our customers and that is why we believe in the value of this meeting.

【答案解析】欢迎参加商业与经济政策系列活动，这是由香港大学商业经济学院与南华早报联合主办的。本活动受到了花旗集团慷慨慨鼎力的支持。今天的会是本研讨会的系列之四。我们已经讨论过许多话题了，今天我们将把目光聚焦在税收及预算问题上。众所周知，关于预算问题讨论和争论一般都在三月份。
今年我们的预算已经呈现良好状况。诚然，在做计划的时候，我们未曾想到预算会如此之好；但的确不错，我的意思并不是说账目是否平衡，但我们应该更深入地研究我们的收支形式结构以及香港是否仍存在实质性的问题，是否有其他选择，还有，时间是现在还是以后。 [解析]
Welcome to the Business and Economic Policy series, which is organized by the University of Hong Kong"s Faculty of Business and Economics and the South China Morning Post. The event has received the gracious and generous support of Citigroup. This is the fourth of the seminar series. We have covered a variety of topics, and today we will be looking at tax and the budget. As we all know, March is typically the month when the budget is being discussed and debated.
Already, our budget looks in better shape this year. Of course, when we planned it, we thought the budget might not have been in as good a shape as it is; but is it really in good shape, and I do not mean whether the books are balanced, but we should look into the deeper structure of our expenditure and revenue pattern and whether Hong Kong does still have a real problem, and whether there are alternate options and also whether the time is now or later.