XN000022-1993-05-04 — Page 36

22

TUESDAY, MAY 4, 1993

+

So it's been a great success story.

And why?

First of all, because Adam Smith's been in permanent

residence in Hong Kong over the two decades when our

economy has quadrupled in its strength and size. We have been a community which has practiced market economics

year-in and year-out with considerable zest and skill.

Secondly, we're at the center of the fastest-

growing region in the world, where hundreds of millions of

people are, in Churchill's phrase, moving ahead to better

pastures and brighter days, and not only at the center of

the Asia-Pacific region but also at the gateway of China,

where the Chinese economy has been opening up over the

last years with tremendous success. 70 percent of the

investment that goes into China goes through Hong Kong.

80 percent of the investment that goes in to Guandong goes

in through Hong Kong.

The third reason

the third reason for our

success is that we have combined Chinese

entrepreneurialism with the rule of law, and the rule of

law isn't, as you know, just a matter of judges in wigs

sitting in courts. The rule of law is about the

relationship, as well, between a free press, a credible

legislature, and an independent court system.

All those things are keys to Hong Kong's

prosperity, because, just as our prosperity has sustained

our way of life, So it's equally true that our way of life

has helped to sustain our prosperity.

/I think

: