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are confident of their ability to do so in the future.
And we have a system of Government which is suited to
the territory's unique situation and which combines
maximum opportunity and reward for energy and inventiveness
and an already sound and steadily improving infrastructure
which shields the community from the harsher difficulties
to which we are otherwise committed. Our currency reserves
are strong, we are accustomed to a balanced budget, our
governmental debt is minimal. All these things in combination
give us a good basis from which to face the future.
The second factor is that Hong Kong's progress
has to be sustained not in isolation but in the context
of the region. The region is on the move and Hong Kong
is moving as part of it. The national growth rate figures
for the countries of the Western Pacific have been constantly
abnormally high by international standards and have every
prospect of remaining so and I sincerely believe that the
last two decades of this century are likely to be the era
of East and South East Asia. And Hong Kong occupies a
position at the centre of the communications of this region
and in the closest contact with the vast developments of
the People's Republic of China. The third reason is of course
the greatly