SPEECH GIVEN BY MR HENRY KESWICK
CHAIRMAN OF THE HONG KONG ASSOCIATION
AT THE DRAGON BOAT DINNER
THURSDAY 11TH JUNE 1992
11KB 22/3
8 JUN 1997
19
ов
Secretary of State, Your Excellency, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen. The Hong Kong Association has its Dragon Boat Festival Dinner every three years as a celebration. Three years ago, in June 1989, it was not a celebration; but history has moved on and all those who wish Hong Kong and China well cannot fail to be encouraged by the political and economic evolution that is taking place.
A Dragon Boat Dinner is a rare event: by tradition it happens only once every three years. One of the very few events which is even rarer is Baroness Dunn's birthday! Being on 29 February it falls only in leap years, and of course 1992 is one. That makes it doubly auspicious and we are delighted that Lydia Dunn has come from Hong Kong to join us tonight.
These past three years have seen formidable changes in Hong Kong. From the low point of 1989 Hong Kong has picked itself up with characteristic resilience and moved forward. The economy has never been stronger. Hong Kong's boldness and vision for the future are visible to everyone in the new airport project. It is now the tenth largest trading nation in the world and climbing: a quite remarkable achievement for six and a half million people. We have seen the first direct elections to Hong Kong's Legislative Council, and no-one can doubt that Hong Kong's political life has become more lively, even if that makes Government's life more complicated. Above all, I think we all sense a mood among Hong Kong's people of much greater self-confidence. They see ever wider opportunities for Hong Kong, stretching well into the next century: and that confidence is reflected in the decisions which they are taking now decisions to invest in the future and to build for the future.
Our next Dragon Boat Dinner will be in three years' time but the one after that will be in 1998, when the 1984 Joint Declaration will have been implemented. The provisions of the Joint Declaration continue to be an excellent, internationally binding agreement and I am sure all of us here are optimistic that it will lead to a stable and prosperous future for Hong Kong. We see 1997 as the start of new opportunities rather than as the end of a period of history.
Our Association is delighted to welcome so many distinguished guests who are mingled with the members of our Association. Our members cannot alone influence the bilateral relations between the great sovereign powers of the People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom but we can all by our enthusiasm and entrepreneurial endeavours, if in only a small way, influence the confidence in the Joint Declaration and the future prosperity of Hong Kong.
Mr President, of the Board of Trade, we very much welcome what you have said tonight. Your political vision of "winning for Britain" is well known and in fact you have staked your whole political philosophy on the success of Britain in the market place. You believe in the role of Government as co-ordinator, encourager, and enabler. We thank you for your encouragement but as Eastern merchants, of whom many have traded on the China Coast for more than a century and a half, we know that in the end it is only our own personal initiatives and character that will lead to success in trade and investment. Hong Kong was founded by British trading initiatives and I am confident that Britain will continue to be the dominant foreign commercial force up to and beyond 1997.