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- I have followed Hong Kong affairs very
closely since I became Foreign Secretary
5 years ago. The territory and its
future have always been very high on my
list of priorities. Like most others
who watch from outside, I am stunned by
your spectacular economic successes;
your booming trade and investment; your
full employment; your GDP growth; your
ambitious development projects. You are
the envy of Western and Eastern economic
managers.
But I am well aware too that, like
everybody else, you have problems as
well. I have started my programme here
in Hong Kong by looking at one, the
problem of the Vietnamese refugees.
Indeed it is all too often the problems
rather than the successes which cross my
desk. That is the fate of Ministers.
Those problems need to be kept in
perspective against the wider picture of
remarkable success. And that is one
reason why I particularly welcome this
opportunity to come back here now to see
for myself.