XN000022-1979-05-04 — Page 18

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So may I spell out, Mr. Chairman, as briefly as possible, the dimensions of the exodus seen from the standpoint of Hong Kong and the implications for our own people of our continuing to observe, as we have so far, accepted international conventions.

Hong Kong has a land area of 404 square miles, of which only about one quarter is suitable for urban-type development and agriculture. Most of the remainder is steep, unproductive hillsides and waterless islands. But, even on the basis of its total area, Hong Kong, if not the most densely populated territory in the world, is certainly the most densely populated in this region with a population of 4.7 million in mid-1978, the overall density per square mile was nearly 12,000. Taking the metropolitan areas alone, the density per square mile was of the order of 67,000, no less.

This

These densities result from past surges in the size of Hong Kong's population which have been beyond our control, rather than high rates of natural increase: from a post-war low of 600,000 in 1945 the population quadrupled to nearly 2.5 million by 1955 and then increased by another 1.2 million to 3.7 million by 1965. Over this 20-year period the average annual growth rate was 9.5 per cent. By 1974 the population had increased by another 600,000 to 4.3 million, but at least the average annual growth rate over the nine-year period 1965-74 was as low as 1.7 per cent. was because total net immigration amounted to only 180,000 and there was a steady fall in the rate of natural increase due to demographic factors and a wider awareness of the social and economic benefits of family planning. During 1975 and 1976, net immigration fell right away and, indeed, emigrants exceeded immigrants by 10,000 or so; and the average annual growth rate of the population fell to 1.4 per cent. But in 1977 the satisfactory decline in the rate of natural increase began to be offset again by an inflow of immigrants: net immigration rose sharply to 33,000 in 1977 and to 96,000 in 1978. These figures are seen in a worrying perspective if one compares them with the natural increase in each of these two years of just under

57,000.

/But it was

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