22
TUESDAY, MAY 4, 1993
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So it's been a great success story.
And why?
First of all, because Adam Smith's been in permanent
residence in Hong Kong over the two decades when our
economy has quadrupled in its strength and size. We have been a community which has practiced market economics
year-in and year-out with considerable zest and skill.
Secondly, we're at the center of the fastest-
growing region in the world, where hundreds of millions of
people are, in Churchill's phrase, moving ahead to better
pastures and brighter days, and not only at the center of
the Asia-Pacific region but also at the gateway of China,
where the Chinese economy has been opening up over the
last years with tremendous success. 70 percent of the
investment that goes into China goes through Hong Kong.
80 percent of the investment that goes in to Guandong goes
in through Hong Kong.
The third reason
the third reason for our
success is that we have combined Chinese
entrepreneurialism with the rule of law, and the rule of
law isn't, as you know, just a matter of judges in wigs
sitting in courts. The rule of law is about the
relationship, as well, between a free press, a credible
legislature, and an independent court system.
All those things are keys to Hong Kong's
prosperity, because, just as our prosperity has sustained
our way of life, So it's equally true that our way of life
has helped to sustain our prosperity.
/I think
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