7
H
Friday, January 27, 1978
"le have used this favourable period to push on with our social programmes;
since last year I descri' ad in some detail the way in which they will transform
Hong Kong physically and socially over the next few years, I will not do so
again. Suffice it to say that we have kept well up to all targets and expect
to continue so this year.
The pace of construction for all programmes and consequent physical change
has now reached the lovel at which we have been aiming. I know it is fast, and it
disconcerting as well as exciting and encouraging to watch the face of Hong
Kong changing so rapidly. I kno: it is causing acute inconvenience and
discomfort to many people, and we have every reason to be grateful to them for
the patience and good humour with which they have t lerated the dust, the
construction trucks and the pile drivers. However, the, end result will soon
be a cleaner, quieter, better provided, and in many cases a more profitable life
for all, including present aufferers.
As you know I attach great importance to these changes and to their
rapid implementation. I believe them to be the prerequisite for liong Kong's
survival as a cohesive contented healthy and efficient society, and I believe
there is good support for this view amongst all sections of the population.
Insofar as there is distrust or reservations they relate not to what has
been or is being done, but to the fear that in the future southing will be
attempted that will set the economy or the financial attraction. of Hong Kong
at risk. Such fears are natural, but I can only say they are unfounded. The
economy is the po er house of all we wish to do here, must be, and always will
be, our prime concern.
We must also remember that the rest of the world is clanging too, and must
be sensitive to its viow of us and chut ve are doing. We have every right to
-be proud of our present rate of progress, but I can see a Hong Kon, which
faltered in these ains receiving short shrift in a world impatient with a
community irresolute in solving its long-standing social problems though
anxious to market its goods.
/Any survey