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nervous system
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REVIEW
that biological device that springs into action, in emergencies, without
conscious control.
Hong Kong doctors who have trained in Western medicine are generally dedicated men who have established a high reputation in the Royal Colleges. One asset they share with the man on the work bench is an ability to absorb and apply the knowledge imparted by their teachers to whom they show the traditional Chinese respect, which however sometimes seems to be in-born reserve. The stresses and strains of learning seem to reinforce their dedication and examinations are seen, not as obstacles, but opportunities to respond and show they understand the obligations they must accept in advance in return for their privileged position in society. Of course, not all are like that. But the standards attained in the profession can perhaps be gauged by the recent establishment in Hong Kong of one of the five diagnostic virus laboratories in the world designated by the World Health Organisation. Abroad, some are specialising in bio-chemistry and genetic engineering.
Problems of Housing
.
Housing remains Hong Kong's most serious problem, not only because of the constraints of limited land, but also the cost of producing sites and an infrastructure as we encroach more and more on virgin land with marginal economic viability. We have built 480 215 units in the public sector, housing 2 126 400 people. No less than 50 per cent of our strained construction resources are being employed to maintain an on-going production effort of 30 000 units a year for renting and 12 500 units for home ownership which will be increased further in the next few years. This has, long since, made the Hong Kong Housing Authority the world's biggest landlord but its problems have sometimes grown faster than its solutions. The growing population, aggravated by immigration, reduced its permanent housing provision from 44 per cent of our population when it was 4.5 million people to 42 per cent when it reached 5.1 million. There is an enormous waiting list for public housing, and a big squatter population on our hills.
A volatile private sector has also not coped, despite publicly unpopular inducements, with the accommodation requirements of the people. Pressure on resources are due on the one hand to the self-betterment drive; and to developers on the other. Taking advantage of the imbalance in supply and demand developers have over-built some commercial property to the extent that mounting costs and prices have now hit a plateau, have started to move downwards. At the same time they have relatively neglected the residential flat market, except at the top end where profitability has been as great as it has been in commercial property.
Though the combined efforts of the public and private sectors last year property production became the leading factor of the economy producing domestic inflation, helped by those who take the dubious short-cut to self-betterment through big profits and speculation. The 1981 Census found 100 000 vacant newly-built flats in Hong Kong, 40 000 of them in the private sector, where prices have reached a point at which would-be home owners cannot afford to buy because the high prime interest rate to curb inflation has imposed bank mortgage rates of more than 20 per cent. These figures may be capable of explanation but, in the circumstances prevailing, it is hardly surprising public sector home-ownership scheme flats are snapped up at 25-35 per cent below market value and at the current mortgage rate of 17.1 per cent. Or, that there has been even some talk of outlawing speculators as criminals acting against the interests of society as a whole.
One solution now proposed is to eliminate, with strings on re-sale the cost of the land element in the home-ownership scheme to improve its attractiveness to 50 per cent of free