XN000022-1976-03-06 — Page 8

our people have been trained in your colleges and universities and many

have relatives in the United States. The American Chamber in Hong Kong

is one of our strongest and most active business groups who play an

essential role in our links with the United States, and I would wish to

pay a tribute here to their enthusiasm and their contribution to our

community.

"There is no doubt that Hong Kong has witnessed far greater

development in the past twenty-five years than in the previous hundred

years of its existence. It was established as a port for the China trade

and fitted its position as an entrepot. But since the fifties its own

industry has grown at a rapid pace, exporting to all parts of the world but especially to the large consumer markets of North America and Western

Europe.

"Despite our small size and population of only 41⁄2 million, no

developing country exports more manufactured goods than Hong Kong. We

are the largest exporter of clothing and of toys in the world and have expanded rapidly in such other fields as electronic products, radios,

watches and cloaks, cameras, optical goods and so on.

Hong Kong is also the biggest tourist

destination in South East

Asia, the largest financial centre in the region outside Japan and a

focal point for telecommunications and air and sea transport. It is a large

market for China products and a significant source of foreign exchange

earnings.

Hong Kong has thus been transformed from a small trading outpost

to a modern metropolitan centre in the space of 25 years. This has been

achieved through free enterprise and the business acumen of our traders

under the spur of somehow having to find a living and the material resources

for a population that has quadrupled in 25 years.

The free