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Government spends more on education and training each year than on any other
activity.
The best workforce needs a Government which sets the right economic policies.
The Hong Kong Government has done that for decades. Hong Kong is the best
advertisement I know for the benefits of the free market and an open trading
system. It enjoys another advantage too: a system of values founded on the
rule of law.
These are precious assets. They are at the core of what has made Hong Kong special and successful over the years. If that success is to continue, if Hong Kong is to remain attractive to businessmen and investors, it is essential that
these assets are preserved.
That has been the aim of our policy for many years. The Joint Declaration,
which Britain and China signed in 1984, sets out in careful detail all the rights
and freedoms which go to make up Hong Kong's way of life, and provides that
this way of life will remain unchanged for at least 50 years beyond 1997.
The British Government attaches the highest importance to the full
implementation of the Joint Declaration. One of its key provisions is that, by 1997, Hong Kong's legislature shall be constituted by elections. China's Basic Law for Hong Kong after 1997 sets out in more detail that the gradual development of democracy which has been under way for a decade will
continue beyond 1997.
The talks we are holding with China are not, therefore, an argument about democracy. That principle is agreed. The argument is about whether the final round of elections to be held under British sovereignty in 1994 and 1995 will be fair, open and acceptable to the people of Hong Kong.