2
Hong Kong and to the search for that settlement has recently been
reaffirmed in a personal message from Sir Geoffrey Howe, Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs. I and the Unofficial Members of the Executive
Council will be visiting London next week for further consultations with
the British Government. We all remain determined to make a success of
the talks.
The second point may be an obvious one but it is key to an
understanding of Hong Kong. It is that this is one of the most open
market economies in the world. Hong Kong's impressive economic growth
has been based on a policy under which the Government has deliberately
left the industrial, commercial and financial sectors free and unfettered
to compete in domestic and world markets. The Government has sought to
regulate only where the orderly conduct of business, fair treatment of
the work force and the good name of Hong Kong so require. At the same
time, we have sought to provide the infrastructure and the environment
in which modern techniques and good industrial relations can flourish,
and enterprise and hard work bring their rewards. In good times there
When times are
is usually a chorus of endorsement of this approach.
harder, as they have been recently, there are some who are quick to call
on the Governmerit to intervene and to take measures to alleviate the lot
of particular sections of the community. The mind of this Government
is never closed to change, nor will it be; we live in a changing world
and, where appropriate, we shall adjust to it. But we must not succumb
to the deceptive temptation to seek short term alleviations of the
difficulties of particular sectors without careful consideration of the
side effects of those measures and of their longer term impact on the
economy as a whole. We must have regard to the middle and longer ter
and to the interests of the community as a whole.
/My third