2
Achievement of Objectives
4.
The achievement of these objectives is not a matter
of "trusting to luck" to quote one weekend commentator: nor is it dependent on "a long term plan to stimulate the economy", whatever that might mean, to quote the same commentator (and it cannot mean very much in a situation of full or near-full capacity operation). In my view, the achievement of these objectives is dependent on (1) realism and (2) the exercise of discipline in the decision--
making process.
Realism
5.
By realism, I mean a willingness to accept that, in the case of an externally oriented economy such as ours, any attempt to interfere with the process of adjustment to a change in the trading environment would be very quickly felt throughout the economy. So the Hong Kong Government's economic, monetary, fiscal and budgetary policies are both a consequence of the economy's external dependence and a contributory factor in the economy's ability to achieve growth through trading and other transactions, the vast
bulk of which cross the exchanges. not face those responsible for formulating public policies in relatively closed economies - although many economies are not as closed as some governments believe for a failure to maintain external competitiveness can be masked and at least partly absorbed in the relatively large sectors of such economies not concerned with external transactions.
Discipline
6.
The same situation does
So much for economic reality and the inexorable dictates of that reality in the peculiar and extreme circumstances in which the people of this city have to earn their living. What about the exercise of discipline in the decision-making process in the field of public
policy?
7.
Now the decision-making process is, or can be,
a highly argumentative process because there has to be an inter-play between (a) the provision of those basic public services and of those elements of the social and economic