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Hong Kong people's resolve "really vital factor": CS
The Chief Secretary, Mrs Anson Chan, said today (Monday) that the "really vital factor" in the future of Hong Kong was the resolve of the people of the territory themselves.
Addressing a gathering of almost 200 prominent Italian business people in Milan at the start of her five-day visit to Italy and France, Mrs Chan emphasised that the overwhelming majority of people were determined to make the "one country, two systems" concept work.
"We realise that our future lies with China. We are proud of the contribution that we are making to China's modernisation. We want to be able to continue to contribute. But above all, we are proud of Hong Kong.
"We want to continue to live and work in Hong Kong in exactly the same way as we do now," Mrs Chan said.
The Chief Secretary pointed out that the key to Hong Kong's success was the legal infrastructure on which business depended.
"The rule of law has protected our liberties and allowed free rein to the natural talents and entrepreneurial skills of our overwhelmingly Chinese population, free from the threat of arbitrary intervention in our daily lives.
"The Joint Declaration and the Basic Law recognise that Hong Kong's success as a community and as a business centre depends upon the continuation of its system of government and its way of life beyond 1997.
"And running through the entire document (Joint Declaration) and the Basic Law, is the overriding principle of the rule of law. Hong Kong people are guaranteed their human rights, their freedoms. Freedom of speech, of the press, or assembly, or worship. Freedom to join trade unions. All the freedoms we now enjoy," she said.
Mrs Chan said that good government and the rule of law were the essence of any successful society. Businessmen who could invest anywhere in the world, tended to shy away from places where government was inconsistent, arbitrary and opaque.
"Investors are very wary of places where the laws can be overridden by people in power, places where a business dispute can get you detained incommunicado or where leases and contracts get reinterpreted to suit the other side."