PEECH BY PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE AT THE DRAGON BOAT DINNER, 11 JUNE 1992
DRAFT OUTLINE
Grateful to have been invited to speak to you on this occasion which is a celebration of one of the great free market economies of the world. Fitting that I should do so as President of the Board of Trade in a Government which is similarly committed to economic success based upon free and open markets.
This commitment mirrors a number of broad parallels between Hong Kong and the UK:
historically the economies of the UK and Hong Kong have been heavily dependent upon trade as
as a motor for domestic economic development;
- we have both recognised that such development can only be fully achieved within an open global trading environment where goods and services can exchange freely and competition is not distorted by barriers to trade.
we both have economies which are internationally open and fundamentally private sector driven, where we recognise the importance of enterprise and individual endeavour. Is there any work force in the world more energetic than that in Hong Kong? Look at how work practices in the UK have changed over the last 13 years as we have dismantled all those restrictive practices which had secured a stranglehold on the economy and created a climate where everyone can fully maximise their potential.
Hong Kong has always been a significant player within the global trading environment. Today it would be impossible to overestimate its importance. Hong Kong's role within this environment is
complex and many layered it is like peeling the layers of an onion:
- at the core, is Hong Kong as a market of 6 million people, where average annual growth over the last twenty years has been 8 per cent and where per capita incomes are now among the highest in Asia. This is a market which purchases from the UK alone over
£1 billion of goods, per annum. It is a market whose attractiveness will increase as disposable incomes grow further;