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As exporters, you face both physical and artificial bottlenecks at present with the port. Your success is putting huge demands on the port's capacity, and the limited choice of service providers gives you little room to negotiate on costs.
Those concerns over competition and capacity underlay the arrangements that were made for the development of Container Terminal 9. Your interests, Hong Kong's interests, will be served by resolving that dispute as quickly as possible.
It has been very encouraging that in recent weeks we have seen significant progress on a number of issues of concern to you and to many both within and without Hong Kong. We have reached agreement on the setting up of a Court of Final Appeal. Financial Support Agreements on the airport and the airport railway projects have been concluded, as have the award of franchises for air cargo operations at the new airport.
I welcome these agreements. They are good for business, they are good for everyone in Hong Kong. I think they reflect a growing understanding of the fact that Hong Kong cannot afford to wait for uncertainties to be resolved. It is not a Ming vase whose value can only be retained by preserving it behind glass. It is more in the nature of a tool box whose value comes from being put daily to good use, whose value is preserved by being adapted and developed to meet new demands and new opportunities.
Maintaining Hong Kong in good working order isn't just a matter of getting negotiations over future arrangements right, it depends just as much on getting on with the business of today. I know from the statistics that you are doing that enthusiastically and I can assure you that the Hong Kong Government shares your enthusiasm for moving ahead.
We have worked hard to ensure that the Legislative Council election this September can be conducted smoothly and that all who want to do so can participate. To uphold human rights and freedoms, we have reviewed and modernised over 40 pieces of legislation in the last few years and will soon be dealing with the few question marks that remain. Following the agreement on the Court of Final Appeal, which I referred to, we are, as you know, taking the Bill through the Legislative Council at the moment. We trust that the Council will support this very important development of Hong Kong's own autonomous legal structure. As soon as the Bill is passed, we will begin all the practical work needed to ensure that the Court can be up and functioning on schedule in July 1997.
On the property front, we will continue with measures to curb speculation and to improve supply. We aim to strengthen the social fabric of Hong Kong with the commitment to provident schemes - which, again, we trust the Legislative Council will support by passing the enabling legislation contained in the Mandatory Provident Fund Bill.