Speech given by Sir Yue-Kong Pao, C. B. E., LL.D., J. P., Chairman of
World-Wide Shipping Group at the Foreign Correspondents' Club on 12th May, 1981.
I must first of all thank Mr. Donald Wise, your President, for his
introduction. It is always a pleasure to be with you all. Since I spoke to
you last I know you have not been idle and I have also done a few more
things enlarged the tonnage of my group, entered into a joint venture with China and involved myself a little bit in the real estate business.
However I must disappoint those of you who expected me to talk specifically
about the Hong Kong property market. Let's just say that I am too fresh in
the game to feel confident enough to give you any advice!
This is not to say that I am not interested in the subject. Next to
shipping, the property business is the most exciting game, and I am
certainly not exaggerating when I say that it is an essential ingredient
in the spectacular economic development of Hong Kong. As our population.
grows, and more industrial and commercial expansion takes place, so
land becomes more precious, and clearly not only local investors are
aware of that fact.
Questions concerning investment in Hong Kong are being more and
more often discussed in the shadow of the approaching year 1997.
Despite the very explicit statements by the Chinese leadership on this
point- the latest verbal assurance being made by Vice Chairman Deng Xiaoping
to British Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington during his recent visit
to Beijing, there is still much concern and pressure for formal guarantees
about the future. Personally, I tend to believe that the Chinese Government
has already done much by stressing repeatedly, in words and in actions,
that while there is disagreement over the treaty position in strict legal terms,
this need not interfere with the practical side of Hong Kong's status both
now and after 1997..
However, given the anxiety in some quarters to see a formal settlement of the territorial questions, I believe it may be likely that some ways can be found to overcome the seemingly intractable, if, in my view, peripheral differences and to give legal recognition or expression to the intentions on both sides. If that can be done, so much the better, though personally I am satisfied with the concern and interest expressed recently by both governments in preserving Hong Kong's status quo far into the future, and believe that there is no apparent reason for the almost obssessive preoccupation with a date which is, let us face it, still 16 years away.