18 July 1984
C
on
Mr Peter Bottomley (Eltham): To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make a statement the Green Paper on the further development of representative government in Hong Kong to be published by the Hong Kong Government on 18 July.
No 188W
SIR GEOFFREY HOWE
The Hong Kong Government are today publishing a Green Paper on
the further development of representative government in the
territory.
Copies of this paper have been placed in the Library
of the House. The main aims of the proposals are: to develop
progressively a system of government, the authority for which is clearly rooted in Hong Kong, which is able to represent
authoritatively the views of the people of Hong Kong and which is
more directly accountable to the people of Hong Kong: to build
this' system on the existing institutions which have served Hong
Kong well, and as far as possible to preserve their best features:
and to allow for further development if that should be the wish of
the Hong Kong community. This gradual approach builds on existing
and well tried systems, rather than attempting a more radical
approach with its attendant risks during a sensitive period of
transition in the life of the territory.
The Green Paper proposes that arrangements should be introduced
to provide for a substantial number of Unofficial members of the
Legislative Council to be elected indirectly by an electoral
college composed of all members of the Urban Council, the new
Regional Council, and the District Boards, and by specified
functional constituencies. To start with, these arrangements
/should