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"Hong Kong can aim for the stars. After all, Hong Kong people have already proved so much: how it is possible with resourceful business leaders to create one of the world's most prosperous economies in a tiny territory devoid of natural resources; how to create a soundly-based, adaptable, socially-responsible market economy that still outpaces the competition; how to remain open to the world while retaining a distinct identity; how to entrench the rule of law, root out corruption, and beat crime while upholding personal rights and freedoms; how to grow from a post-war ruin to the great international city of today," he said.
He said it was no wonder so much of Asia looked to Hong Kong as a model. It was not going to stop doing so on July 1, 1997. The development of Asia would surge on and so would that of Hong Kong.
The increase in the disposable incomes of Asian workers and their families promised to be the most powerful engine of economic growth for the next generation.
Across Asia, market economics, and the hard graft of millions of people, were helping to consign shanty towns and squatter huts to history. Countries and governments were wrestling with the consequences of rapid economic change, of growing income differentials, of inadequate legal structures, of corruption, of environmental degradation.
At home, they tried to accommodate political and social aspirations to economic advance. Abroad, they saw, more and more, the perils of protectionism and the benefits of free trade.
"Against that background, we should ask, is the sort of place Hong Kong has become, the values which have shaped our community, a throwback to an outdated past in Asia, or a forerunner of what the future could be like in more and more Asian countries?" he asked.
"Step outside Hong Kong for a moment. Consider what those countries see when they look at this city. Our outstanding Civil Service, whose efficiency and professionalism have a world-class reputation.
"Our Police Force, which US law enforcers have described as the finest in Asia, and which plays a vital role, as do Hong Kong's other law enforcement agencies, in international co-operation against drugs, money-laundering and terrorism. Our independent Judiciary, enforcing the law fairly and impartially.