SHAPING UP FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
should go. They will not go there until the industry wants them and will pay for them - bit by bit.
By the early years of the next century the development of Stonecutters Island and Tsing Yi for container operation will be nearing completion and it will be necessary to start on the facilities on Lantau. This will mean a major adjustment to container handling for, in effect, there will be two container ports, splitting the marine and land traffic between the two.
The part of the Joint Declaration dealing with civil aviation is more complicated. Air services agreements are deals between governments who give nothing away unless they get something in exchange. In the past London handled our agreements, swapping favours in Hong Kong for rights in foreign countries for British or Hong Kong aircraft. In the future, agreements on routes between China and Hong Kong, or transiting Hong Kong to or from the mainland of China will be handled in Beijing in consultation with the Hong Kong Special Administration Region Government. Agreements for other services may continue to be negotiated by Hong Kong direct with foreign governments subject to specific authorisations from Beijing.
Hong Kong's strategic position in the Asian region should mean that we shall be able to get reasonable deals for our aircraft when granting them landing rights here. Hong Kong will have many attractions.
The airport is sure to come as a relief to people who will, by then, have had to put up with a crowded Kai Tak for some time. Chek Lap Kok will be spanking new, at least for the first few years of the next century, with all the latest gadgets for handling aircraft and passengers safely and speedily. They may even find a quick way of getting the luggage out of the planes.
Because both the airport and most of the new road and rail links that will be built to it will be on land that does not exist now, the new systems will be built with the aim of carrying speedy transport. The airport will be less than half an hour's travel from Central and not much more to Shenzhen. High speed ferry transport direct to ports in the delta will be convenient for many. Air cargo from both Hong Kong and the delta will also be handled in new facilities. Air cargo now constitutes more than 20 per cent by value of all exports, split almost half and half between domestic exports and re-exports.
Trade not only means agreements on ships and air services but also on the movement of the goods themselves. One part of Hong Kong industry that cannot move to China is the textile industry because world trade in textiles is so tightly tied up by international agreements that if the factories move to China they could no longer sell to their customers.
At one time these trade deals were negotiated for us by London but they became so arcane that for years Hong Kong has done its own negotiating bilaterally with its trading partners and multilaterally in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade as 'the United Kingdom speaking for Hong Kong'. Both Britain and China, when they thought about it, agreed that it would be sensible for Hong Kong, being a separate customs territory, to become a member of the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade itself. This was accomplished in 1986.
What is tiny Hong Kong doing on such an august world body? We are in fact a giant in textiles, toys, watches and clocks. (It is actually garments that we export: we are an enormous net importer of fabrics.) We have come to be accepted as the leader of the world's textile producers. This is only partly due to the enormous volume of the clothing
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