JUN 09 '86 20:13 GIS HK
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A the speaker from Hong Kong, I should like to supplement the excellent speech by Sir Geoffrey Howe about Hong Kong, its recent political and economic development and its future prospects. In doing this, I shall look at it from the Hong Kong's point of view. The last Dragon Boat Dinner was in the midst of Sino-British diplomatic negotiation on the future of Hong Kong, As the talks were conducted in the strictest confidence, rumours and speculations on the contents and progress of the negotiation preoccupied the media during the most part of 1983 and 84. Consequently, the confidence of the community was badly shaken from time to time, causing significant declines in local currency, stock market and real estate value.
The
The worst episode was the Black Saturday in September 1983 when there was rumour about the failure of the talks. Hong Kong dollar plunged to its record low of ten American cents and most of the food items in supermarkets were bought
This led to the abandonment of the up by local residents.
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floating exchange rate and the linking of the HK and US currency at 7. 8 Fortunately, during the two stormy years of negotiation Hong Kong's domestic exports were booming and there was practi-
And with cally full employment with rising living standards.
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the support of an undisturbed civil service, we in Hong Kong were able to alleviate any, social upheavals, despite the political tension. For this, I must pay tribute to both the Governor and the Chief Secretary of Hong Kong for their achieve- ments in this respect. It was no mean 'task indeed.
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As Hong Kong itself was not allowed to be a party to the negotiation, the Unofficial Members of both the Executive and Legislative Councils have a duty in reflecting the views, anxieties, hopes and aspirations of the people of Hong Kong to the British as well as the Chinese Governments. For this purpose, Unofficial Members of the Executive Council paid regular and frequent visits to London during the talks to meet with the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State and Ministers. In order to ensure that the result of negotiations would be acceptable to the people of Hong Kong, the Legislative Council in March 1984 unanimously passed an Unofficial Member's motion on the need to debate in the Council any proposals for the future of Hong Kong before any final agreement is reached This is the famous LOBO Motion, between the two Governments.
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