CONFIDENTIAL
5. Because of Hong Kong's beneficiary status under the generalised preference schemes of many developed countries, its imports into those countries often receive duty free treatment or individual lower rates of duty. Such status was recognised on a multi-national basis after its initial such recognition by the EEC Generalised Preference Scheme.
The
6. The competitive edge to Hong Kong's large quantity of exports is maintained by the free trade policy which operates there. impartially administered legal system there has created a free enterprise business environment whose open market policies make Hong Kong very attractive to the companies and professional people whose internationally mobile nature could cause a dramatic exodus if the confidence that they share in Hong Kong at present were to fail. Because of Hong Kong's dependence on international trade, which in turn fluctuates at the whims of overseas governments, the Hong Kong government is relatively unable to make policy decisions affecting this. Its policy of non-intervention leaves decision-making a affecting all sectors of Hong Kong's economy to the entrepreneurs and organisations who are putting their money at risk. If the presently successful economic situation in Hong Kong is to continue, the motivation and confidence of, respectively, the workforce and entrepreneurs must also continue. Business confidence is very closely linked to the stability and predictability of the business environment ånd administration. There is much confidence in Hong Kong at present for these reasons Government policies are consistently adhered to. They are not frequently changed or amended and neither are they subject to external intervention. Motivation is sustained by administering fiscal taxation at comparatively low rates and by the rising standards of living that the people of Hong... Kong have now come to expect.
CONFIDENTIAL