JA4ASD
CONFIDENTIAL
MR RENTON'S VISIT TO HONG KONG (27 31 OCTOBER 1985)
2. TEXT OF SCENE SETTING TELEGRAM FROM HONG KONG
1.
as
When he arrives in Hong Kong Mr Renton will find an
air of "business as usual" The signature of the Joint
Declaration removed a large element of uncertainty about
the intentions of the Chinese and British Governments
regards the future of Hong Kong. It confirmed Chinese
acceptance of British administration over Hong Kong for the next twelve years and their agreement that the social and economic systems should remain unchanged thereafter. This has engendered a substantial degree of
of short term
confidence and provided a basis on which longer term
confidence can be built.
2.
is
Economically the rate of growth has not been as
still expected to reach
Unemployment stands at only 3% with
effect the workforce
is fully
high as it was last year but
between 4.5 and 5%.
1% underemployment.
In
employed. Inflation is running at 3.3%. Domestic export
rates have fallen by 6% compared with last year but a
strong rise in re-exports, particularly to China, has
maintained Hong Kong's performance in international
The link with the US dollar has held well in
spite of the gyrations of the foreign exchange market
early this year.
trade.
3.
The
process of extending the elected members of the
District Boards, of creating a new regional council and of installing a partly elected central legislature
(LEGCO) have all, with a few short hiccups (as over the
Powers and Privileges Bill), gone very smoothly. The
resulting composition of
of the Legislative Council is not
CONFIDENTIAL