2 -
-
Mr Stewart accepted this but thought that Mr Smith had
some reservations. Mr Smith suggested that in fact it would be better for development plans to be considered as was done in Western countries - and then for the budget strategy to be framed in accordance with the requirements of development instead of expenditure being subject to revenue. Mr Haddon-Cave said that expenditure was subject to the economy and not to revenue and that he did not make expenditure subject to development plans.
3. He asked that Hong Kong
be juged by its
performance and that the Hong Kong Government was responsible for the people of Hong Kong and this concern was reflected in the budget. He suggested that, if there was any fundamental criticism of the budget, then this should be put in writing because in the past there had been too little put into writing. He was tired of hearing criticisms at fourth hand. Mr Stewart said that after the meeting of the Standing Committee to Monitor the Planning Paper a letter on the budget. would be sent to the Governor.
4. Mr Haddon-Cave said that the budget should not be judged-by style but by results only. He made no apology for the way in which his budget had been framed. They allowed for the process of adjustment and partly as a result of budget strategy the economy had become diversified and investment was increased. This would not have happened
·
if it were not for the fact that both overseas and in
Hong Kong people : trusted the Hong Kong Government. Mr Stewart said he appreciated that a lot had been done and was being done, and that attitudes could not be changed overnight, but Mr Haddon-Cave would not accept that attitudes required to be changed and reiterated that an argued critique should be given to him on the budget, which he could then answer, assuming that it would be agreed that there could be differences of style in budgets. Mr Stewart would not accept that there were not different attitudes in Hong Kong. Indeed he himself had seen changes in attitudes to some extent over the last three years and he thought that many Chinese businessmen were opposed to change.
/ 5.