SPEECH BY PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE AT THE DRAGON BOAT DINNER, 11 JUNE 1992
I am honoured to have been invited to speak to you this evening
at what I know is of one of the most important events celebrating
the UK's relationship with Hong Kong. That I speak to you as
President of the Board of Trade is a more than happy coincidence
for trade and Hong Kong are synonymous. It is Hong Kong's past
and present built upon trade which has secured its prosperity and
which I am sure will continue to do so well into the future.
in Hong Kong's
Kong's life.
We are now approaching a crossroads
Inevitably everyone's thoughts are on 1997 and beyond. This is
preeminently a time for looking forward and it is to the future
I shall turn later on. Yet it is also a time for taking stock;
for assessing the past and the journey to the present. That is
something which we in Britain shall be doing as well as every
Hong Kong citizen.
And how do we here in the UK view the past? With, I think, some
pride. Under British control Hong Kong has come quite a way over
the last 150 years. Timothy Mo called his book about the
foundation of Hong Kong "An Insular Possession". In the strictest
sense Hong Kong Island was, and of course still is, insular. But
insular also means narrow and inward looking. That Hong Kong has
never been. It has, rather, been the antithesis. It has always
looked outwards, stretching beyond its narrow geographical
boundaries to develop as a major trading economy; dependent upon
interchange with
with other economies for the lifeblood of its
existence. That Hong Kong has developed in this way is in no
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