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One third of the airport and related infrastructure projects have already been completed. Now that we bave the financial support agreements, we will be pressing ahead with even more vigour. The Route 3 and Western Harbour Crossing projects are well on track and as you know, we are exploring with the Chinese authorities the railway projects and other cross border infrastructure that will help Hong Kong to serve the economic development of Southern China even more effectively than it does already.
Hong Kong lives by looking forward. That means there will always be a full agenda of work for Government to do, as well as more than enough business for you to be getting on with. I can give you my assurance that the Hong Kong Government today is fully committed to getting on with its work with enthusiasm and to ensuring that the Hong Kong SAR Government is as well placed as possible in 1997 - well placed financially, well supplied with capable officers, well placed with ideas - so as to carry on smoothly with the successful administration of Hong Kong. I have no doubt that you will carry on your business with as much energy and enterprise.
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has been an The Hong Kong story you've heard this so many times astonishingly successful one. Where are the natural assets of Hong Kong? Harbour and people. But those natural assets have been enough to turn what was largely a refugee community forty-five years ago, into one of the most successful economies in the world. An economy which has managed to take in its stride a great deal of turbulence in the region, changing according to market forces, turning itself into an economy now so successful that it represents - and this is pretty well the only statistic you ever need to carry in your head - so that it represents about 26% of China's GDP. People sometimes think there must be some simple solution. There isn't a simple solution. There's a combination of reasons for our success. There's of course our commitment to market economics. But that's not the same as saying that we've followed crude capitalism without thinking that the Government has a role in our lives. The Government hasn't, thank heavens, tried to play a role in your lives, as business leaders. It hasn't tried to second guess you. But it has invested substantially in what economists call social equity programmes, invested in people's health, invested in people's housing, invested in people's education and training. So that we now have one of the most educated skilled workforces in the world.
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You can also look for other reasons for our success for the rule of law, for a civil service which is impartial, competent, professional and clean. A civil service led by women and men - better get the order right of the distinction of Anson Chan, Donald Tsang, Joseph Yam and all those other civil servants who are, and I've seen the operations of government in other places, who are as competent as the civil service We also know that this has been a you would find anywhere in the world. hardworking, committed, enthusiastic community which believes that men and women can, by their own efforts, make things better. It comes as an astonishing proposition to some European politicians who pass by from time to time.
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