68.
STI in LegCo debate on motion of thanks
Following is the speech by the Secretary for Trade and Industry, Mr Chau Tak- hay, in the Legislative Council debate on the motion of thanks today (Thursday):
Mr President,
The effects of the economic restructuring understandably continue to be a concern of the Government, this Council and the community. I am therefore pleased to see the support expressed by Honourable Members for the Government's initiative to seek to promote the development of the service industries. Building on Hong Kong's success as an international services centre, the Financial Secretary's task force is looking into the strengths and weaknesses of individual service sectors, and measures to create a domestic environment conducive to the further development of services. The task force will carry out extensive consultation with the business sector and professional experts in the coming months.
But let me make it very clear that this initiative does not mean that we are going to develop the service industries at the expense of the manufacturing sector. Nothing is further from the truth. In this regard, the Government shares the view expressed by some Honourable Members that the future of our manufacturing industry lies in the use of high-tech processes and the production of high valued-added products.
However I am baffled by what many Honourable Members perceive as the role Almost without exception, of the Government in our industrial upgrading. Honourable Members who spoke on this subject advocated, explicitly or implicitly, an interventionist approach by the Government. An extreme example is the attribution of the success of our neighbouring countries to their governments having followed "the Japanese example in which the powerful Ministry of International Trade and Industry has coached some companies for excellence, even dominance, in certain specialities to the country's benefit". Nothing can be more wrong-headed and more mind-boggling than these demands that we should turn Hong Kong's free and open economic regime a regime that has over the past few decades made Hong Kong the economic wonder of the world - into one in which entrepreneurs are made to dance to a tune composed by bureaucrats!