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"The findings so far suggest not only that our services sector should continue to play a vital role in the intermediation of our trade in goods.
"But that it possesses excellent potential to radiate outwards to penetrate and complement the less developed services markets in other developing economies in the Asia Pacific region."
Mr Tsang emphasised that the government was committed to fostering free markets in services, promoting competition and maintaining a level playing field.
"While we are committed to providing infrastructural and developmental support for the further development of our services sector, we firmly believe that business decisions must be left to businessmen.
"Markets, not bureaucrats, must decide which products, whether goods or services, are commercially viable. In other words, we must ensure that the market continues to drive the development of specific services."
Mr Tsang said the government would continue investments in human capital - as a means of facilitating the transition of our workforce to the most productive use.
"By this I do not mean just continuing to invest billions of dollar. We must also fashion the right curriculum at schools and tertiary institutions that will equip our young with the appropriate skills which are global, not parochial. We must also strive to design the right training and retraining programmes that will help upgrade the skills of our workforce," he added.
The Financial Secretary said the government would continue to promote the most productive use of our scarce physical capital.
"We will preserve these policies which have proven to be effective in encouraging a high level of savings and investments; policies which channel investments towards enhancing the productive capacity of our economy. In this regard, we are committed to boosting the breadth and depth of our financial markets.
"Last but not the least, we will continue to play an active role in international economic policy-making in such fora as the World Trade Organisation, APEC and the OECD, to encourage the liberalisation of the international trade in services," he added.
End