A.
CONFIDENTIAL
Hong Kong: Some basic questions that might
be asked.
(
Financial & Economic
1. Budget: is it sensible to go on lumping capital receipts
· and expenditure in with current revenue and expenditure?
2. Is it sensible to go on assuming that loans by the Government
cannot or should not be raised either in Hong Kong or
externally?
3. What kind of increase of taxation might be envisaged without
risk to Hong Kong's prosperity?
4. Is there any economic need for further increases of Hong Kong's
external assets (i.e. sterling)?
5. Do the answers to questions 1-4 indicate that the only
restraints upon the Hong Kong Government's expenditure on
internal needs are either policy ones or physical ones (e.g.
lack of trained engineers or of land) but not financial ones?
6. What rate of increase of expenditure can be realistically
planned then over the next 5 and 10 years for those sectors of
the Government's activity where present facilities are
obviously poor, in particular:-
(a) education
(b) housing
(c) social security?
7. Would an outside survey, e.g. by the IMF or World Bank, help to
focus ideas?
8. How long can Hong Kong manage without a Central Bank?
CONFIDENTIAL
/9.