(7)
II Government Policy in the Longer Term
Conflict of views
36.
While expressing concern about what was presently
happening to the economy, honourable Members were obviously mindful also of the implications of excessive domestic demand
for our longer term prospects and Miss Dunn, for example,
emphasised the role of stable fiscal policies and the importance
of the public sector not crowding out the private sector. But
several went further than this and, by implication, did not
agree with Mr. Alex Wu when he said that he "would be reluctant
to see us resort to more direct attempts to regulate behaviour
in the economic field".
(8)
37.
Advisory Committee on Diversification
(a) Hong Kong Research Council
Thus Mr. James Wu called for the establishment of a
largely Government-financed Hong Kong Research Council to
undertake research in social, economic and technological
subjects and he thought we should establish the Council
straightaway and "not leave it to the conclusion of the
Advisory Committee's work next summer".
38.
I do not feel that I am competent to pass judgement
on the need for research into social problems. However, I
think we can all agree that there is a continuing need to
improve our knowledge of the workings of the economy, and the phased programme of surveys already started by the Census and Statistics Department into the activities of the tertiary
services sector and the proposed improvements to our financial
statistics provided for in recent amendments to the Banking
Ordinance and the Deposit-taking Companies Ordinance are steps in the right direction.
21
/39. The