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As the moments tick away in the autumn there will be some important things to decide, for instance the identity of my successor, the Chief Executive-Designate. We all hope that the process of selection will be as open, fair and broadly based as possible. If it's not, many people will wonder with some justice what all the fuss has been about. And of course, the fairer the system the more credible the winner. We all want to see a Chief Executive emerge who can command the support and loyalty of as many Hong Kongers as possible, and who can draw into the debate about our community's future every shade - every shade of opinion. A Chief Executive will also have to appeal to the world beyond Hong Kong, demonstrating that Hong Kong's autonomy is for real, and that will be a lot easier if the international press is reporting that the selection was open and fair.
But what sort of Hong Kong will my successor govern?
A city far more successful than was predicted. More successful, for a start, economically. The economic disasters, so widely forecast, simply haven't happened. Anyone who says something like that should touch wood just in case, and I'll do that now, but I'll do it knowing that the figures still point in the right direction. Only this week we had more good figures on inflation, steady now at less than half the figure of 5 years ago. Hong Kong remains an economy on which the world is placing its bets.
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Other predictions about Hong Kong have happily - come unstuck as well. On crime, to take one important example. It used to be argued that as 1997 approached, Hong Kong would be engulfed by a crime wave. That just hasn't happened. Crime did rise in 1994 and '95 - albeit to levels which would be regarded elsewhere in the world as pretty low but this year it's fallen sharply by 12.2 per cent and violent crime, which is particularly unsettling, has fallen by a bit more.
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Do you regard Singapore as a crime ridden city? A tough and violent town? No of course, you don't. But don't forget that crime here is about on a par with Singapore, according to Interpol: sometimes a bit better, sometimes a bit worse. By most yardsticks. Hong Kong is remarkably unthreatening, remarkably peaceful.
That isn't an endorsement of complacency. Our Commissioner of Police isn't complacent and nor am I. For the victim of crime, any criminal act is 100 per cent too much. What's more there is a worrying incidence of break-ins and robberies, often by illegal immigrants, which makes people worry about whether they can really rest secure at night. We're going to pay more attention to stamping out this sort of crime. And I don't want people to think that it's a sign of things to come. There's no reason at all why 1997 should bring more crime to Hong Kong. We will have the same superb police force, which co-operates very well at the operational level with the police across the border. Our police will continue to be answerable to the government here. We'll still have our own border, our own Fight Crime Committees, our own commitment to keeping Hong Kong safe.