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quite extraordinary speed.
China has invested in all sorts
Hong Kong businessmen have
of businesses in Hong Kong.
invested heavily in Guangdong Province across our border as
well as elsewhere in China. It is estimated that about
US$8 billion, or 70%, of foreign investment in Guangdong
comes from Hong Kong, and that between one and a half and two million people in the province work in Hong Kong owned
factories.
The change has put strains on our own economy. The service sector has expanded to serve the huge growth in the
reexport trade. It has had to do so at a time when our
manufacturing sector is flourishing and the financial
sector is growing fast. Competition, especially for
white-collar workers has been intense. The result has been
a rapid rise in wages, inflation touching against double
digits and unemployment down to a scarcely credible 1.3%.
Our economy, despite all of you may have read about it, is
not in depression. If anything it is still overheating.
Trade has given Hong Kong its international
character.
—
was
America has contributed to this since its
consulate the first foreign consulate in Hong Kong
established in 1842. (It so happens that the first Consul
was called Bush!) Your businessmen have been with us ever since. Some 900 American firms operate in Hong Kong.
Over