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8. The agreement is a basis on which the people of Hong Kong will build. They will bring to the task the energy, persistence and determination for which they are rightly famous throughout the world. I am confident that they will make Hong Kong an
today.
more flourishing place than it is
9. Britain and China share a continuing responsibility to maintain the conditions within which the people of Hong Kong can realise this goal. We have laid the foundation in this solemn international agreement. We have created, in the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group, a forum for cooperation over its implementation. We have demonstrated the strength of our political commitment to it today by the signatures that you, Mr Premier, and I have set upon it. I am heartened by the assurance which your Government has repeatedly given that the arrangements for Hong Kong contained in the
agreement are not measures of expediency. They are long term policies, which will be incorporated in the Basic Law for
Hong Kong and preserved intact for 50 years from 1997.
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