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speak about what little I know about Civil Aviation and landing rights, so I shall confine my remarks to one area-Nationality and speak as a Hong Kong belonger who holds a Hong Kong British Passport who is also in the travel business.

Although the topic has been put as 'nationality, I think what is foremost in people's minds when they discuss this subject is really travel documents and the freedom of travel. There are probably about two and a half million people in Hong Kong that at this moment qualify to be called British Hong Kong Subjects. In the great majority of cases this is not by choice, but by chance that they were born in Hong Kong. The great majority of Chinese people born in Hong Kong think of themselves as Chinese, speak Chinese and have habits that are Chinese, and at the same time have no clue of what the life and ways of the country that confers the British nationality to them-Britain is like. When people talk of 'protecting the rights of British Nationals', we must not be disillusioned into thinking that millions are fighting for the right to immigrate and settle down in Great Britain, for the truth of the matter is that we have not had that right for some time and do not have the right now. Furthermore, in practical terms the great majority of Hong Kong Chinese have no wish to immigrate to Britain, nor do they have the ways and means either. If I want to be blunt and straight forward about it, I would say that what people are really concerned about is not nationality, but passports and the right to travel freely.

Hong Kong people are one of the most widely travelled people in the world. I am told by people in the U.S. Consulate that there are fewer than 10 per cent of American citizens who actually have a passport. On the other hand over a quarter of Hong Kong's population possess a valid international travel document.

It is not because I am in the travel industry that I plug the line that travel is important. Although most people and most travel agents think of travel and travel agents as something to do with pleasure and sightseeing, I think this is a less important aspect of travel. What really matters is the ease of travel for business purposes, especially if we are to maintain our status as an international business centre and export centre.

Many of you who are in manufacturing or the export business will know that Hong Kong has a reputation for being able to react quickly and respond to changing market demand. Apart from the skills attributable to our manufacturers, I am quite sure that the ease with which Hong Kong businessmen can travel in and out of Hong Kong has a lot to do with the way we are able to remain competitive in international markets.

Business moves fast today, and will move even faster in the future. I remember when I joined the shipping agency department of our company 16 years ago, routine business matters were discussed by regular monthly or weekly letters; important matters were done by telex, which half of us executives spent considerable time in seeing who could say the same thing in one or two words fewer. If it was a really important and crucial matter, you asked the Department head to dial long distance through the operator. Today, it's the other way round: routine matters are discussed by telexes that junior executives send and the department head only sees them in the circulation file; important matters are dealt with by long distance phone and dialling I.D.D.; while only crucial matters are dealt with by letter-usually saying things like you are fired, or are promoted. In the same manner, business related travel has grown considerably. Fifteen years ago, a business trip to Singapore or somewhere nearby was something middle-level executives could brag about, while today, you travel around the world and are back before most people even know about it.

Fifteen years ago, most of Hong Kong's exporters and factories waited for overseas buyers to come to place orders, and most of Hong Kong's exported products were made entirely to the design and order of the buyer. Today, business has become more competitive, not only within Hong Kong itself, but also within the region vis-a-vis Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, and even Malaysia and Thailand. Added to this the increasing acceptance of modern management and marketing theories by our younger 'second generation' business executives, plus the increase and variety of Hong Kong designed export goods, our manufacturers and exporters are travelling quite a lot not only to seek out new business, to promote their products, but also to investigate market trends, and to see if there are any new ideas to be picked up that may lead to a new marketable product. Many Hong Kong businessmen have the flexibility of hopping on a plane to go to U.K. or Canada at a few hours notice, while his Taiwan counterpart could spend days ploughing through red tape and expense to get a visa, by which time the Hong Kong person might have already come back with a business order.

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Apart from quality, price and reliable delivery time, one other reason overseas buyers like to do business with Hong Kong is the international and cosmopolitan outlook of today's Hong Kong business executive. I am quite sure that this is directly related to the fact that we have a higher proportion of business executives that have travelled widely, or studied, or both, overseas than many of the neighbouring countries in the region. Exposure through travel is an important part of any executive's career. Even if you don't learn anything and don't pick up any business or ideas through a business trip, at least you will have more topics to chit-chat about at the next cocktail party which is an increasingly social feature in today's business world-be it the good (or lousy) service by the hostess on the plane or the weather in England! It is this sort of international exposure that makes many of our customers, especially from English speaking countries, feel more comfortable about having minds meet when they do business with us.

One feature of Hong Kong's business environment over the last two decades is that not only have multi-national companies opened up an office in Hong Kong to do business here, but they have opened up Regional Offices that have areas of responsibility covering the immediate South East Asian region and sometimes covering as far as India, Australia and Japan. The executives they hire will need to visit these places, be it to audit the accounts, or to fix up some computer problem, and as these regional offices of multi-national companies adopt a policy of localization by hiring more and more up and coming local executives, they will need to know with what ease these executives can travel on their behalf. So I put to you the ease and freedom of travel is an issue that affects career opportunities for local executives too. If we can't travel easily, all these plum jobs will go more to expatriates who can.

Having said so much about business travel, which is directly related to the prosperity of Hong Kong and the prospects of remaining an international business centre, I would like to put forward the point that even travelling for leisure is not as one-sided as Hong Kong people taking money away to spend on sightseeing overseas. It is obvious that side effects such as picking up new ideas and knowing the market do occur when business people travel on pleasure, but it is less obvious how pleasure travel by the blue collar worker can benefit us. We must consider that Hong Kong is a very small and compact place, and unless one provides an outlet for going away, it is easy to get frustrated, especially after a full year's hard work more intense than our neighbouring countries. From a management point of view, all work and no play is not the way to get the best productivity out of workers. I am one that believes the ability by workers to travel for leisure purposes not only provides them with a suitable recreational outlet that increases productivity, it also provides an incentive to work harder to earn that travel. In addition, I think most blue collar workers who travel around neighbouring Asian countries come back with the conclusion that Hong Kong is not a bad place to work in after all, despite all its shortcomings, and this sort of sense of belonging at least helps keep industrial unrest down.

All of the above points illustrate the importance of travel to our economy and prosperity. They are the results of travel, so what about the ways and means of travelling?

To travel freely, you firstly need money. After that, you need valid travel documents. But even as far as valid travel documents go, there are differences in the privileges enjoyed by different travel documents. At the moment, about half of our travelling population hold Hong Kong British Passports, or what is technically called a 'British Dependent Territory Citizens Passport'. The other half, mainly because they were not born in Hong Kong or have not become naturalized, hold Hong Kong Certificates of Identity, in short 'C.I.'. Both are valid travel documents, both allow you to leave Hong Kong freely, and both allow you to return to Hong Kong. Right of abode is in Hong Kong and nowhere else. The major difference is the ease, or functionality of these two documents when it comes to entering a third country.

I did a study in early May by going through the entry requirements for 180 countries and territories ranging from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and tried to examine the difference in functionality for entry purposes between the Hong Kong British Passport, The Hong Kong Certificate of Identity, and for comparison purposes, the United Kingdom British Passport which is carried by U.K. British nationals and gives the right of abode in U.K., and the Chinese Passport which gives right of abode in China. The results are tabled today for all to see. In short, I found that there are 71 countries (only 70 in May, but Austria has recently been added) that allow a Hong Kong British Dependent Territory Citizens Passport holder to enter without visas. I stress this entry is not to immigrate, nor to find a permanent job, nor for long term education, but for tourism and business purposes and is usually conditional that you have a return air ticket and enough money to support yourself (some countries I understand also judge by the fact whether you are a ...).