9.
You emphasised the importance of the rule of law and you also expressed the hope that wealth in Hong Kong didn't give people extra privilege and I wondered what plans you had to make the law of Hong Kong more accessible to ordinary people?
Governor: I stand corrected on the phraseology which goes well beyond political correctness, I recognise, and you make a perfectly reasonable point.
On the second question, which I guess is an issue not just for Hong Kong but for the United Kingdom, the United States, most if not all members of the European Union, indeed I would guess most OECD countries, I hope that the proposals we have put forward on reforming the organisation of legal aid and the provision of legal aid will be of some assistance but I recognise that very often the costs of going to law and the sometimes cultural barriers that people find themselves having to clamber over in order to go to law, both create problems and they are problems that we need to address very vigorously. Because the rule of law isn't just something which guarantees that people will stand by their contracts. The rule of law isn't just something which makes business and investment rather safer. The rule of law is the defining element in a decent and civilised society and it has to apply to everyone however rich or poor they may be. I don't think in any community where the rule of law applies, it is yet possible to point to a sufficiently vigorous administrative structure which makes certain that the rule of law touches the lives of the poorest and neediest as well as others. It has to do with counselling, it has to do with the provision of services, it has to do with access, it has to do with cultural access, it has to do with education, and those are all issues on which we are perhaps coming later than some, in Hong Kong.
Question: I wanted to ask a question on property prices. On property prices, Governor, the interest rate has gone up, which you mention is a function of the linkage of the exchange rates and so there is no interference in that market but there has been interference in the market on property prices to make apartments more affordable. As banks have limited mortgages to 70% would there be any time when the Government would feel it appropriate to interfere in the mortgage market, to instruct banks to make it easier to borrow so that people can buy apartments because as prices have come down, interests rates have come up and transactions are very much down and apartments are still not being bought, they're going unsubscribed?
Governor: No, if I'd wanted to become a banker I'd have done so and doubtless have been adequately rewarded for my pains. I said in my speech that I didn't believe in [ intrusive intervention in markets when they were going up or coming down. certainly don't believe in intrusive interference in the operation of banks or other financial institutions. If governments start to interfere in that way, sooner or later, if things go wrong with banks and financial institutions, the public or the banks and financial institutions ask the Government to pick up the tab and that is not something which I think is healthy and it doesn't have any part in a free market economy such as this one mostly is.
End/Monday, January 23, 1995
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