Outclassed SAR 'no copycat'

TOP civil servant Anson Chan Fang On-sang yesterday defended Hong Kong's millennium fireworks display, saying the SAR should not be a copycat.

As Sydney, London, New York and Paris ushered in the 21st century with a big bang, the SAR, which aspires to be in the same league, staged a much smaller show of pyrotechnics at Happy Valley racetrack.

The switch from the normal Victoria Harbour-wide display at Lunar New Year prompted questions as Mrs Chan faced the press at a New Year briefing.

'I think every country and every territory celebrates the turn of the century in its own different way.

'We don't want to copy what other people do,' Mrs Chan said, adding that the most important thing was that everyone had a 'jolly time' and that no life or property had been endangered.

The seven-minute display kicked off at the stroke of midnight, but only the 46,000-strong crowd at the course and residents in surrounding buildings witnessed the fireworks.

The Government would not say how much the pyrotechnics cost, only that the whole 'Millennium Extravaganza' cost the Government $10 million. The amount of private sponsorship was not disclosed.

London set off its biggest ever fireworks display, vast enough to be visible in space. More than 40,000 fireworks were set of in carefully co-ordinated movement along a 5km stretch of the River Thames.

In Paris, 5,000 fireworks lit up the Eiffel Tower in a spectacular eruption that rocked the entire city and was watched by more than 1.2 million people.

In New York, almost three million revellers cheered in Times Square as fireworks burst across the city's skyline from the Statue of Liberty to Central Park.