2
(1)
over US$1,100 per annum.
This growth represents
a genuine and substantial advance in living standards:
in real terms, the gross domestic product has been
increasing in recent years, on average, at something
of the order of 74% per annum, and this is equivalent
to about 5% per annum per head of the population.
(2)
(3)
Economic Development
4.
Hong Kong's economy today differs vastly from
that of the late 1940's and early 1950's not only by
virtue of its sheer size, but also in terms of its
structure. Hong Kong's strategic geographical position and
natural harbour facilities had for long made it a centre
world, on the other.
for the trade between China and the surrounding region,
on the one hand, and the rest of the
Hong Kong's early growth and emergence in recent times
as a major financial and commercial centre owed much to
this trade, but that is another story which I shall not
be dealing with today.
In any case, Singapore would hardly
Rather surprisingly, re-exports
be an appropriate venue.
still represent as much as 24% by value of total exports
but, in marked contrast to the position two decades ago,
Hong Kong's economy is now largely based on the export
of manufactured products which qualify for Hong Kong
certificates of origin. The manufacturing work force is
now half as large again as it was just ten years or so ago
and its growth has been far more rapid than that of the
working population as a whole. Today manufacturing industry,
/which..