XN000022-1981-11-17 — Page 14

IS

DAILY INFORMATION BULLETIN-SUPPLEMENT

ISSUED BY GOVERNMENT INFORMATION SERVICES BEACONSFIELD HOUSE, HONG KONG TEL 5-233191

SPEECH BY H.5. THE GOVERNOR, SIR MURRAY MACLEHOSE,

TO THE ANNUAL DINNER OF THE HONG KONG SOCIETY OF ACCOUNTANTS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1981

Society.

I am honoured to be asked to address this distinguished

Your President referred to the need for more accountants in Hong Kong and to the proposals the Society has made for producing them. Shortage of local professionals generally is all too apparent, whether it be lawyers, engineers, doctors, architects or accountants, and the same applies to a long list of supporting disciplines. The Government is acutely conscious of its responsibility to make gord these shortages and of the restricting effect of allowing them to continue. But in planning for the education and provision of more professionals it must get the modalities right - hence the current review of post-secondary and technical education.

But I can assure your President that the Goverment has heeded

the representations that the Society has made, of which the most recent

have been to the Committee to Review Post-Secondary and Technical Education. I understand that your written evidence was followed up by a meeting, at which "a useful exchange of views took place". Though the Government has got to take decisions on the recommendations of the

Review Committee, these will be taken soon, and it is accepted that the expansion of our tertiary institutions must be directed to heeting the shortages in the key professions, including accountancy. I am very much aware that these professions are the pillars on which the technical and social advance of Hong Kong must be built.

How I would like to switch subjects to the economy of Hong Kong, and first of all to an aspect of it which has expanded rapidly in recent years, namely the growth of investment in neighbouring and other parts of China. This development undoubtedly poses both

/opportunities for

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