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I suppose that I'm asked more than anybody else, and it's the most frequent question I get, I'm asked: Is it all going to work? Is Hong Kong going to continue to be as successful and decent and good a place to live in the future, as it is today? And I answer - I answer optimistically. Not mindless optimism. Nobody believes you if you deny that there are any difficulties or problems, but I think we can take those in our stride.
I answer optimistically for two reasons:
First of all, and for me it's a very important reason, first of all because of the resilience, the courage, of the people of Hong Kong, who've taken an awful lot of more difficult things in their stride in the last forty or fifty years.
We've got a system here which we know works. We're committed to it, and provided we stick to it, provided we're prepared to stand up for it, provided we're true to ourselves, then I'm sure that Hong Kong will continue to be very, very, successful in the future.
The second reason why I'm optimistic is equally simple and equally clear. I see an awful lot of the young people of Hong Kong. I see them in schools, and universities, in training institutes, in technical colleges like Tsing Yi and Chai Wan. I saw a group the other day in a broadcasting studio and they asked me questions for about an hour. I addressed a couple of weeks ago - a whole school at their assembly and I am struck over and over again by the quality of the young people of Hong Kong - enthusiastic, cheerful, humorous, committed, determined not just to do their best in their own careers, not just to make the most of the education and training they're getting, but determined to build an even better future for Hong Kong than its past.
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I think that they will help to shape a marvellous city in the 21st century in the decades that lie ahead.
Sun Chun Fai Lok
End