Reserve Fund announced yesterday. Unless we maintain
smooth momentum in construction, when new opportunities
come as they will we will not be able to grasp them.
21.
G
And opportunities there will be, as well as
uncertainties.
Of course Hong Kong is the place it is
because every day someone grasps a new opportunity. But
the biggest one at the moment I believe to be that offered
by the development of the mutual co-operation with Guangdong
and other parts of China that is already developing. There
is nothing abnormal about this. We must remember that it is
recent history which has been abnormal and that what is
happening is a process of renormalisation. But during this. period of abnormality Hong Kong has developed in ways which make it possible for co-operation to be of infinitely greater value and significance than it would have been a decade or
two ago.
Our recent growth has been made possible by seeking
trade and business east and west and south. It is vitally
important that these connections continue to be developed and
exploited. They will still be the basis of our wealth and of
our value as partners in cooperation. But at the same time
we must learn to look north. Our businessmen are better placed
to seize many of the opportunities that exist near at hand
than the missions and the tycoons from overseas who visit
Beijing for a few days to discuss vast projects. It must be
up to the individual judgment of each businessman what he does,
but opportunity knocks, and as many as possible should at least go and form their own opinion. The infrastructure is developing, and the goodwill of the Chinese Government is there for all to