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HIS EXCELLENCY: THE
PRESIDENT:
The Council will resume. Mr.
CHEONG-LEEN,
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Mr.
CHEONG-LEEN:
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Sir, if I were asked whether the Financial Secretary's Budget speech had any sort of central theme, I would have said that even though many of us in Hong Kong are now worry- ing about the brain drain of talent so vital to our economic growth, the central theme could be summed up in a few simple words: Cautious confidence in Hong Kong's future as a viable economic and financial centre. I am of one mind with the Financial Secretary that Hong Kong with its free-port status and open-market economy remains as vulnerable as ever to external forces and no matter how well our economy is doing in any given year, we should not let our guard down and become dangerously exposed to adverse shifts, whether abrupt or sliding, in the World economy. Hong Kong is still very much an export-led economy. One of our main con- cerns has to do with keeping the spectre of protectionism at bay and preventing it from
2 rearing its destructive head any higher. Like many other financial centres, Hong Kong did not come out unscathed from the stock market
our
crash which reverberated round the World last October. But on the positive side, the reorganisation that is now taking place within Stock Exchange and futures Exchange is re-establishing and even strengthening Hong Kong's status as an international financial centre. It is anticipated
is anticipated whether with some foundation or not I do not as yet know
not/
'that
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