XN000022-1983-06-27 — Page 14

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Hong Kong and to the search for that settlement has recently been

reaffirmed in a personal message from Sir Geoffrey Howe, Secretary of

State for Foreign Affairs. I and the Unofficial Members of the Executive

Council will be visiting London next week for further consultations with

the British Government. We all remain determined to make a success of

the talks.

The second point may be an obvious one but it is key to an

understanding of Hong Kong. It is that this is one of the most open

market economies in the world. Hong Kong's impressive economic growth

has been based on a policy under which the Government has deliberately

left the industrial, commercial and financial sectors free and unfettered

to compete in domestic and world markets. The Government has sought to

regulate only where the orderly conduct of business, fair treatment of

the work force and the good name of Hong Kong so require. At the same

time, we have sought to provide the infrastructure and the environment

in which modern techniques and good industrial relations can flourish,

and enterprise and hard work bring their rewards. In good times there

When times are

is usually a chorus of endorsement of this approach.

harder, as they have been recently, there are some who are quick to call

on the Governmerit to intervene and to take measures to alleviate the lot

of particular sections of the community. The mind of this Government

is never closed to change, nor will it be; we live in a changing world

and, where appropriate, we shall adjust to it. But we must not succumb

to the deceptive temptation to seek short term alleviations of the

difficulties of particular sectors without careful consideration of the

side effects of those measures and of their longer term impact on the

economy as a whole. We must have regard to the middle and longer ter

and to the interests of the community as a whole.

/My third