1
The Governor's question-and-answer session
Following is the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten's question-and- answer session after his speech at the "Corporate Citizenship in Asia Pacific" Conference organised by the Council on Foundations today (Thursday):
Question: Thank you very much, Governor, a very impressive speech. I am one of the frequent visitors to Hong Kong. I like Hong Kong very much but the question I have is, I guess maybe too broad, but Great Britain is known to have the so-called British disease. Hong Kong, I think, is a very successful economy. What is the difference between Britain and Hong Kong? How have British people been so successful in bringing about this very prosperous economy?
Governor: I think that Hong Kong's success has been based on an extraordinary, almost chemical combination of Chinese virtues and hard work and values which certainly in the past were associated with British economic success too. Adam Smith, after all, was British. Not English - but then no one's perfect. A good Scot.
I think that Hong Kong has worked so extraordinarily well because it's had all the guts and drive of a refugee community. A bit like New York a century ago, I
guess.
It's had the entrepreneurial nous and guts of Cantonese, Shanghainese, refugees. And three-quarters of the people who live in Hong Kong are refugees from events in China, or the family of refugees from events in China. Combine that energy, that drive, that hard work, that commitment to getting on, to education, to doing better for yourself, combine all that with a framework made up of the rule of law, of the values of an open society like a free press, and add to the mix the most open market economy in the world, and you explain why it is that today, with just six million people, Hong Kong is the fifth largest trading community in the world. It explains why we've managed the social revolution which Hong Kong represents, and the best sort of revolution. There have been a few revolutions in the region but the one in Hong Kong is, I think, the most benign of all.
I am, as part of my responsibilities - some think it a little excessive or even self- indulgent - I am the Chancellor of every tertiary education institution in Hong Kong; I've got more caps and gowns than any other human being. And typically, when I am handing out degrees at university congregations between 60% and 70% of the young people taking their degree come from public housing estates. Typically, only about 6% of them come from backgrounds where either parent went to tertiary education themselves. It's just an example, when people talk about the social responsibility of a market economy - you know look at Hong Kong! We're not without our problems, but all the, I think, best arguments for market economics, you find here.