XN000022-1975-11-14 — Page 14

have been clearly demonstrated.

- 2 -

But once a change of course has been shown

to be necessary, we take the new road with vigour and determination.

Perhaps

it is the principle, more than any other, which has been the mainspring of the

success of your company and of this territory.

The Hong Kong economy rests heavily on manufacturing industry. So

it is the Government's declared aim to maintain conditions which will foster

its growth and success. We must give industry confidence that the Government's

policies will not be lightly altered and above all that we shall continue to

encourage the making of profits.

Let me assure you, and all those who may be minded to launch new

enterprises here, that we believe in profits. Our economy is built upon them,

our revenue relies heavily on them, and without them we could not finance the

extensive social programmes which are so essential to our future. We believe

that the making of profits is best achieved by leaving business to business-

men and by imposing the minimum of interference with free competition.

In the past, it followed from these beliefs that industrial land

should be sold by auction to the highest bidder. When your company informed

us that you were interested in establishing a plant in Hong Kong, but only

if you could put it on Tsing Yi Island and only if the price of the land was

acceptable, we realized that we could only meet these requirements if our basic

methods of land sales were changed, because other companies, able to operate

from multi-storey buildings, would almost certainly have outbid you in an

open auction, had they been allowed to compete. This involved a major altera-

tion to past policies, which had generally served us well, and the acceptance

of new principles which would permit private enterprise to bid for sites on

a restricted user basis, It took us a long time to decide in favour of this

new system and some times you may have felt that we were taking an inordinately

long time to make up our minds. If this was a fair criticism, I nevertheless

hope that you may have derived some reassurance from the care with which we

considered the matter. This measured pace provides a guarantee that we do

/not lightly