2
of the process of government in Hong Kong and has been followed on many occasions. (A recent example of how it works was the Securities Bill: before and after the Bill was published its provisions were the subject of lengthy consultations with relevant sectional groups and these continued right up to the Committee Stage). But, equally, the Government has an obligation to define and pursue the broad
public interest and in a consistent way.
That is to say,
modify our proposals, though We have such an obligation
an obligation to listen does not necessarily carry an obligation to change our minds or we should always admit mistakes. only if a sectional group can argue its case persuasively and demonstrate an identity with the broad public interest (or, at least, an absence of conflict with the broad public interest).
5.
Fourthly,
I do think we must beware of the dangers
of surrendering to subjective judgements on financial and economic issues, particularly if those judgements involve demands for action the consequences of which are at best uncertain and at worst positively dangerous.
6.
Fifthly,
debates on all policy questions must be
based on a clear understanding of the inexorable dictates of
our circumstances.
We are dependent on external trade: that is to say, we are dependent on our ability to buy as cheaply as we can, combine our labour productivity and capital with imported raw materials as efficiently as we can and sell in the most profitable markets as competitively as we can. We must protect, therefore, at all times, what my honourable Friend Mr. P.C. Woo has described as our "flexibility and initiative". As my honourable Friend so rightly said at the conclusion of his speech "what counts in the long run is our ability to
export".
7.
I must interpolate here that I detected a certain concern in several speeches that, perhaps, I did not really understand the essential requirements of a high growth rate of the Hong Kong economy; and that in my pathological anxiety to balance the books, so to speak, I would readily raise the standard rate of earnings and profits tax. At the same time,
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