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circumstances. Essentially these were to develop a framework in which effort
and enterprise could flourish in a liberal fiscal environment with state
interference being kept to the minimum, but, of course, the Government has
assured a substantial responsibility for the development of the social and
economic infrastructure. Economic growth was based on menufacturing. But,
whereas elsewhere in the region, resources were shifted from the primary sector
to the secondary sector and then to the tertiary sector, in the case of hong
Kong the old entrepot trade had already given birth to an advanced tertiary
sector whose development was then further stimulated by the success of the
manufacturing industries of the secondary sector.
Hong Kong's total dependence on imports and exports coupled with its
one great natural asset, the port, and its position on major shipping routes,
must have given the development of shipping within this tertiary sector an
inevitability. Other factors helped. Proximity to Japan helped Hong Kong
shipowners to avail themselves of shikumisen arrangements,
The well developed
complex of financial services in Hong Kong enabled them to find the additional finance necessary to supplement these arrangements; and latterly, with the fall in the number of shikumisen deals, Hong Kong's finance houses have come to
play a more significant role in financing the purchase of ships. Hong Kong
shipowners could also draw on substantial seafaring population, an asset
developed by proper training facilities in Hong Kong. Of great significance
was the determination of the shipowners themselves. They perservered until
They they had overcome the technical difficulties shipowners must face. then maintained a dynamic attitude to their work, developing their fleets in
I believe ways consistent with the changing requirements of world trade.
that Hong Kong's shipowners have a reputation for being among the most
responsible in the world in their attitude towards the fleets under their
control.
/tiy guess...