5
12.
Hong Kong's impressive economic growth owes much to the open nature of its economy.
The Hong Kong Government is, and will remain,
non-interventionist by nature. Its characteristic economic policy has
been deliberately to leave 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.
13.
At the same time, we have invested heavily in the physical infrastructure necessary to complement and support the natural and man-made advantages of Hong Kong. A major programme for the building
of six new towns, which will eventually house some three million people,
was started in the 1970s; it should be largely complete by the end of
the present decade, but we are already well ahead with the planning of
the next stage. We have some of the most modem and efficient
communications in the world, the world's third largest container port
and one of the most efficient air cargo terminals.
14.
We have also invested, and will continue to invest heavily in
the development of our human resources in housing, education, health
and social services. Our housing policy for example can hardly be
described as laissez faire. More than 44 per cent of Hong Kong's
population lives in public housing; about one third of capital public
expenditure is allocated to public housing development. For, just as
we believe in a market-oriented economy, so we also believe in facing
up to, and solving, our own problems. Another of our priorities is education, including technical education and industrial training, for
we are conscious that a well educated working population, possessing
the latest professional, industrial and technical skills, is essential to our continued prosperity in an increasingly competitive world. It is this.concem to respond to the rising expectations of the people which has given Hong Kong the social stability so essential to its
economic progress.
/15.