Page 127 of 194
220
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
cost over the life of an artificial turf does not in itself justify the full capital expenditure. What we must really consider is the increase in the level of usage, and what this represents in the sense of providing an additional facility for public recreational use.
see
Currently, the Hong Kong Stadium is able to cater for about 100 matches a year. If we exceed this figure, the quality of the grass will suffer, as it did two years ago when we allowed as many as 214 games to be played. For the sake of comparison, the number of hockey games played at the King's Park Hockey Ground since last summer has been 113 in July, 156 in August, 102 in September, 115 in October and 123 in November, averaging 122 games per month over that 5-month period. Hockey and soccer are different games, but the duration of one game is not too different, and I am sure that one could have 100 games or more in a month of football on a pitch if we were to provide the facility. This is more than 10 times the amount of usage one could expect for a natural grass pitch. What is the real cost of providing artificial turf then? If we take into account savings in maintenance over, say, a seven-year period, the amortized cost comes to about $0.5 million a year. If you agree that the number of games played could be 10 times as much when compared to natural turf, you can rightly argue that this $0.5 million expenditure is giving the public the equivalent of 10 new football pitches, bringing the expenditure down on average to $50,000 or less per annum for a 'grass pitch equivalent'. Considering the value of land, and the difficulty of physically finding the equivalent of 10 full size soccer pitches in Hong Kong even with today's lower land prices, I reckon we can honestly say that promoting artificial turf is giving the public more value for their money.
1997
Last year at this time on the same occasion I already spoke on 1997 and the future of Hong Kong. It is perhaps easiest to write a speech to last 15 minutes by first quoting from what one said at the time and I shall do so as follows, I said last year: 'We need to separate rationale from emotion and try to identify the ingredients in our society and way of life that have brought us success'. By identifying the ingredients, and then finding a way of preserving them, or ever improving on them, we stand a far better chance of achieving the end result of stability and prosperity that the Governments of U.K. and China and the people of Hong Kong all want. One important thing we want to preserve is the rule of Law, in other words a legal framework where everyone is equal before the law and no one is above the law, law that cannot be changed at whim. A second ingredient is freedom. Not only freedom to earn a living, freedom of the press and speech but also freedom to travel and trade on an international basis. Thirdly, we want to maintain our System where both local and international investors have the confidence to invest and take commercial risk, and to be rewarded by profit or penalized by losses as a result. The Rule of Law, Freedom and our System are part of our lifestyle. Hong Kong has been built up by our own people and it is the blending of those ingredients in an international environment that has made Hong Kong successful. Keeping it this way is 'Status Quo'. That is what I said one year ago.
Although a full year has gone by, my basic views on this have not changed much from the above. During this year, we have seen the talks in Peking stepped up, and we have seen how Hong Kong people truly wish for a favourable outcome that will preserve our way of life, and we have also seen how worried people can get if the talks are not seen to be going well.
Never before in our history have Hong Kong people expressed so much interest and spent so much thought on what makes Hong Kong successful. Many young people are not ashamed of saying that we belong to Hong Kong and that we would much rather see Hong Kong remain successful than run away. After all, with Hong Kong leading the world in exports of toys, textiles, watches, furs and amongst the leaders of the world in port facilities, international finance and communications, why should we not be proud of Hong Kong? Hong Kong's success has given people here good reason to have a sense of belonging to Hong Kong, and conversely, we can only maintain a sense of belonging if we do not lose faith and continue to work towards maintaining our success.
many
While there has been a lot of talk about Britain and China cooperating to maintain the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong in the future, we must also recognize that the recent successes of Hong Kong are already a manifestation of cooperation between Britain and China. This cooperation may not have been written down in any treaty or statement, but I think it is fair to say that our laws, freedoms, administration, and systems are in fact based on a British-type system which has the confidence of many of our trading partners. Even other practical matters such as the wide usage of the English language and British passports, Mr. Chairman, which you mentioned the other day, carried by many people here play an important part in facilitating our contact with the rest of the world in trade, culture, and travel. At the same time, China has been a source of a great deal of our food, water, and daily necessities without which we would find it extremely difficult to function. Also, recently, China is itself becoming a market for our goods too, both in exports and transhipment.
But despite what we have learnt from Britain and what we get from China, we are different from both Britain and the rest of China. Maybe it is because we are different that we have in reality become a truly successful international city. If we do not remain different, if we do not remain international, can we remain successful? This is a question worth serious consideration by Britain, China, and most of all the people of Hong Kong who have built Hong Kong by their own hands, especially young people who will be in the prime of their careers by 1997.
Page 127 of 194
221
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL