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To govern is to choose and choice is invariably
difficult.
Good political leadership involves facing up to
hard decisions, taking them, setting out clearly what has to
be done when all the talking is over, and winning consent for
the course that has to be pursued.
That is why I wish, while preserving the authority and
dignity of my office, to make my Governorship as open and
accessible as possible. But the ultimate responsibility of
leadership rests with me, in what is and will remain an
executive-led government.
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Secondly, our personal and collective ambitions and
prospects are inevitably linked to the success of the economy
ausubere in which we work. Hong Kong knows better than most cities)
that it cannot rest on laurels won in the past. We have to
continuously
strive relentlessly to maintain and improve our competitive-
ness for tomorrow's world, certain only of one thing that
our competitors will do the same. We cannot stand still.
must We will continue to build for that future. That is why the
new airport and all the infrastructure projects associated
with it are so important.
I assume that is one reason why
the Prime Ministers of Britain and China have both expressed
their personal commitment to this exciting work. It is a
great undertaking worthy of the great city it will serve.
When the airport and the new port, and the bridges, and
the railways, and the land reclamation, and the roads, and
the homes are completed we know that the whole project will
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