543
Hong Kong
[Mr. Stanley.]
17 MAY 1979
opportunities for those who want a half- way house on the way to full home ownership.
Our tenants' charter will give to council tenants, new town tenants and housing association tenants new rights and new freedoms. Our creation of shorthold will, I hope, make available thousands more dwellings for renting to those in housing need-empty and under-occupied dwell- ings that are ready and available for those in need but withheld because the previous Government failed to create an instrument such as shorthold to bring them into use.
Our proposals are designed, above all, to meet housing need-both the needs of those who want to rent and the needs of those who want to buy. We look for- ward to introducing the necessary legis lation to carry them into effect.
Debate
adjourned.-[Lord
Douglas-Hamilton.]
Debate to be resumed tomorrow.
James
HONG KONG (VIETNAMESE REFUGEES)
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.--[Lord James Douglas-Hamilton.]
9.56 p.m.
Sir Paul Bryan (Howden): At the out- set I should like to declare my interest as chairman of the all-party Hong Kong group and as a friend of Hong Kong. At the same time I should like to say how delighted the people of Hong Kong are at the appointment of my hon. Friend the Minister of State as the Minister with Special responsibility for South-East Asia, especially in view of his great know- Should
ledge of that country, which is well how
known in Hong Kong better!
I wish to raise the problem of Viet- namese refugees in Hong Kong as I do not believe that the House yet realises what a frightening problem faces the authorities there. Furthermore, unlike most of Hong Kong's problems-which the people there seem fully capable of handling on their own-this is a matter with which only Her Majesty's Govern- ment can deal effectively.
If present trends continue, Hong Kong expects to have about 75,000 Vietnamese
1 L 36
HKK 2431
RECEIVED IN CRISTEY HO. 1
544
(Vietnamese Refugees) refugees temporarily in transit by the on- set of the north-east monsoon in October. That is more than the total population of many of the constituencies that we represent in the House.
Hong Kong is not large. It is about 400 square miles, but only 100 square miles are suitable for urban development and agriculture. The rest is steep hill- sides or waterless islands. In the metro- politan area the population density is 67,000 per square mile.
For 20 years
after the war the population grew at nearly 10 per cent. per annum due to immigration and natural increase. In the next 10 years the rate of growth dropped to less than 1 per cent. per annum. By 1977 Hong Kong's population growth seemed to have been brought to a reas- onable level. That was due as much to the successful efforts to reduce the birth- rate as to China's control of immigration.
With no natural resources the people have pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps. The gross domestic product has grown faster than the population. There is full employment. Wages have moved ahead of those in all other coun- tries except Japan. There have been re- markable achievements in the develop- tion, medical services and social security. ment of social services, housing, educa- So, unaided, these industrious people, under a Government for which Britain is ultimately responsible, were beginning to see some hope of raising their standard of living and meeting the social deficien- cies caused by the post-war influx from China. All that has been put at risk by the staggering increase of immigration, legal and illegal, from China, and the refugee influx from Vietnam.
In
In 1977, net immigration rose sharply to an average of 2,750 a month. In the first six months of 1978 there was a net flow of 5,000 immigrants a month. the second half of the year it was 13,000 immigrants a month. In the first three months of this year, it has been 22,000 immigrants a month. Since the beginning of 1977, the gross intake of immigrants from China and elsewhere has been about 250,000.
It being Ten o'clock, the Motion for the Adjournment of the House lapsed, without Question put.
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.-[Lord James Douglas-Hamilton.]
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