sector,
5
These are just some examples of the scale of endeavour in the public
Against thi bckground it is not surpricing that the expenditure of
the Hong Kong Government should have incre sed from nearly three billion
HK dellars in 1971/72 to over 10 billion HK dollars in 1978/79, or that in the
current budget social services account for 47.6 per cent and community services
(largely communications and water) for 20.4 per cent of total expenditure.
It is much more surprising that this has been achieved without large
increases in taxation, and with the exception of a few self-liquidating projects,
has been financed from revenue not debt.
Thi has only ben possible through the ranid growth of the economy.
Domestic exports grew from 2.9 billion HK dollars in 1961 to 35 billion HK
dollars in 1977, and the cro's done tic product in per canita real terus
increase by an average of 6.4 per cent a year het een 1961 and 1971 and
by 7.1 per cent since 1971.
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I quote these figures to show what an unusually dynamic place Hong
Kong is, and how much is happening there. It is a place on the move, and the
sense of movement, energy and bustle hits the newly arrived visitor like an
electric shock. I submit that is is in such a live market as Hong Kong with
rapid expansion in both private induct.y and public sectors that export orders
and business opportunities are orth looking for.
In fact last year United Kingdom exports to Hong Kong were about
270 million Sterling, that is to say about the same as Britain's exports
to India, two-thirds of her exports to Japan, four times her exports to
China. It is very much a market in its own right, and I believe that with
attention British sales would be much bigger then they are. But the first
essential is to realise that market is there, then seriously to plan its
exploitation,
Nou may well ask