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In deciding where her best interests lay in future negotiations, Mr Miller examined the changes that Hong Kong had experienced whilst prospering mightily over the years.
He said: "First, Hong Kong has regained its entrepot role. As China has reopened to trade and investment, so the composition and the pattern of our trade have changed. Incredibly for a place so small, Hong Kong is now the eighth largest trading economy in the world.
"A second change resulting from China's reopening to trade and investment is that Hong Kong is now predominantly a service rather than a manufacturing economy. Services account for over 80 per cent of our GDP. In the world league of service exporters, we now rank 11th overall.
"Thirdly, Hong Kong has become a significant investor overseas. Cash-rich Hong Kong-based companies have invested all around the world. Just to quote a few examples, Hong Kong accounts for 70 per cent of realised foreign direct investment in China, we are, with Taiwan, the first or second biggest investor in Vietnam and second only to Japan in Indonesia."
However, Mr Miller pointed out that one thing which had not changed was the autonomy Hong Kong enjoyed in the conduct of its external commercial relations.
"I mention this because our close economic relationship with China taken with the imminent change of sovereignty lead some to assume that post-1997 Hong Kong would simply be taken over by China," he said.
"The Joint Declaration and the Basic Law make it clear that under the one- country-two-systems concept, Hong Kong is to remain a separate customs territory responsible for the conduct of its own external commercial relations. We will remain a separate member of the WTO, even when China joins.
"So in preparing ourselves for future negotiations in the WTO, we must look well beyond the transition."
End/Wednesday, July 19, 1995
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