4
watches, plastics, cameras and electronics, in response to changes in
market demand. Some 90% of Hong Kong's manufacturing output is eventually exported; and the value of its total trade in goods amounts to over 180% of the value of its gross domestic product. Its economy
must, therefore, adjust constantly to the changing world trading environment. Its success in doing so is clearly shown by the high rate of economic growth which it has achieved - one of the highest in the
world. In the five years 1976 to 1981, Hong Kong achieved an average real growth rate of 13% per year in its gross domestic product. Even in the last five years, including the 1982 recession, Hong Kong's GDP has grown by an average of 7% per year in real terms; per capita GDP has grown by an average of 5% per year over the same period.
10.
In recent years Hong Kong has added a new string to its bow in the shape of a financial centre of world standing, third after London and New York. We now have about 140 licensed banks of which
35 are local companies; over 100 other foreign banks maintain representative offices in Hong Kong. The financial and ancillary
services sector employs about 170,000 people. Our claim to be a major
international financial centre is well founded.
11.
Hong Kong's development as a major manufacturing and trading economy, and as an international financial centre, has been assisted in part by our favourable geographic position. The Pacific basin is the most dynamic of the world's markets. During the years 1970-1982, the average annual real GDP growth rate of the developed industrial economies was 2.8%, whilst in East Asia, which includes Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore among others, the rate was 7.6%. The base figure
In addition, may have been low at the beginning. It is not so now. China, once regarded economically as a sleeping giant, is now showing signs of developing its vast economic potential. In 1983, China registered a real GDP growth rate of 9.1%.
/12.