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proposal to reduce the peparture fax from
$120.00 to $100.00, further to our call for
a reduction last year. However, I must point
out that this meagre reduction only repos-
itions our Kai Tak Airport from being the
second+most expensive airport in terms of
7
peparture tax to become the third/most expensive in the World, after Japan and Australia. In fact we are still some 23 per cent
238
more expensive than Taiwan, which is in the
the fourth place. Surely, having attained a reputation of a shoppers' paradise, we do not wish to charge travellers exorbitantly, and so as to hamper our reputation. Nevertheless, I must insist that full costs should be recovered. I think this principle of no subsidies for non-essential services must be maintained in line with our balanced
budget approach. Indeed, only strict financial discipline will ensure sound
cannot public finance management. We ean't expect
and afford lavish subsidies.
[The present conditions of continuous econ-
omic growth, low unemployment and stable prices can be causes for our complacency. Yet in our economy, there are both internal and external potential difficulties. Internally, the affluence of our fully employed society and rising costs led by increases in property values and essential charges, together with a further weakening of the US dollar, may soon be putting pres-
sure on on our domestic cost structure. Externally, competition from our neighbouring low-cost manufacturers, countries with
sizeable trade and fiscal deficits, all addø