XN000022-1994-12-12 — Page 4

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Governor invites Korean investment

The Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, restated Hong Kong's support for a bid by Korea's Minister for Trade, Industry and Resources, Mr Kim Chul-su, to become the first Director-General of the World Trade Organisation.

Addressing the Hong Kong/Korea Round Table Conference in Seoul today (Monday), Mr Patten said: "He would make an excellent first Director-General. We hope he wins the post."

The Governor also borrowed a quotation from Korean freedom fighter Paek Pom in his address, citing the national hero's statement that "the true meaning of freedom is in using that freedom to plant a flower in the park rather than pick a flower from the park".

Assuring his audience that the Joint Declaration guaranteeing Hong Kong's way of life would continue for 50 years, Mr Patten invited Korea and Koreans to come in even larger numbers than at present, "to plant flowers with us in the future, and to prosper in the next chapter of the Hong Kong story".

Mr Patten noted Hong Kong's remarkable economic success and pointed out that the territory's importance to China had grown in the two and a half years since he arrived in Hong Kong.

Then, Hong Kong represented 18 per cent of China's GNP; now it was 21 per cent, he said. This figure was astonishing because it had been produced by a territory one ten-thousandth the geographical size of China and with just 0.5 per cent of its population.

Mr Patten noted that Korea, too, had achieved remarkable success in recent years, based on the qualities of hard work, self-reliance and perseverance.

Korea was an important trading partner for Hong Kong, Mr Patten said, adding "as ever, I'm banging the drum for Hong Kong business".

With 350 Korean companies involved in the China trade using Hong Kong as their base, and 270 projects involving Korean investors under way in the territory, the two parties clearly had a big commercial stake in each other's markets and a great deal to offer each other, he said.

End/Monday, December 12, 1994