XN000022-1973-10-17 — Page 88

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Wednesday, October 17, 1973

And so, Honourable Members, it is on this cautiously bullish note

that I end this year's address. We have had our measure of problems, and not

unnaturally it is these that have tended to hold public attention. But

insofar as they have been economic Hong Kong has managed to hold its way

through them and maintain its expansion. And for the future the Financial

Secretary confidently predicts an annual growth rate of the Gross domestic

product in real terms of 7% a remarkable figure. Insofar as our

probleme

have been social or administrative I have explained what we have done or

intend to so, and have told you of such progress as has been made.

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We all welcome the progressive relaxation of international tensions

in this area, the product of realistic statesmanship. We welcome in

particular the new relationship between the United Kingdom and China,

and the prospect of the Prime Minister's visit to Peking in January.

If all these different portents hold up I am tolerably confident

that the year ahead will be one of the prosperity and social progress to

which your Government is committed.