9
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exporta in the near future would only be about 5% to 6.5% per annum in volume
terms; suggesting that the growth potential of the export sector as a whole
may not be enough to enable us to sustain through the Eighties, the growth
rate of the economy we have experienced in the Seventies. Although our
tertiary services sector is expanding rapidly, it is unlikely that its
contribution to economic growth can compensate completely for the slackening
in the pace of growth in the export sector which will result as a direct
consequence of protectionism.
L
It has, therefore, and for long, been our view that the economy
aust diversify to a much greater extent than it has so fer, in order that
we may continue to prosper. This is, indeed, the main conclusion of the
Advisory Committee on Diversification, which has now come up with a list
of recommendations for strengthening and instituting further Government
policies aimed at facilitating the process of diversification.
Government
is now intensively considering these timely recommendations and will shortly
be seeking the advice of Executive Council on them. I can assure you,
Fr Chairman, that the Government will play its part: I am confident too
that industry and commerce, the private sector, will also recognise the
advisability, the necessity of speeding up plans for diversification.
is.
You may well be forgiven for thinking this is a long speech: it
You may also be forgiven for thinking that I have burdened you with
too many figures and percentages. I probably have. I am afraid, though
those figures and percentages are inevitable considerations in the scenario
of Hong Kong's economic future - and particularly in our recurring and now, once
more, very serious problem of people.
In our endeavours to prosper as a business community, Hong Kong's
competitiveness in world markets is important; but this single economic
/factor is..........
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