XN000022-1995-10-23 — Page 10

Governor's speech at the HK Business Conference in London

Following is the keynote address, Hong Kong: Best for Business Seminar, by the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten at the Hong Kong Business Conference at Hilton Hotel in London today (Monday):

David, thank you very much indeed for that speech and that warm introduction. You have stolen in those excellent remarks a good deal of my thunder, which should enable me to finish in rather more abbreviated time and give all of you a little more time to ask some questions.

However, there is one point on which I wish to give you some assurance straight away. You mentioned, David, that during your years staying at Government House you had gradually lost any view of the harbour. The good news is that you can now see the harbour again from Government House; the bad news is that you can see the harbour from Government House because they have knocked down the Hilton Hotel! The further bad news is that they are shortly going to replace the Hilton Hotel with an even larger building, but that, as you know, is the Hong Kong way.

I would like to thank not only you, I would like to thank the Institute of Directors and all our sponsors for organising this conference, which I hope will introduce many more people to the spectacular success story that Hong Kong represents and I believe will continue to represent.

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A sense of history is of course almost as rare as a sense of proportion. It may be even more rare among some who regularly comment on Hong Kong. However, I think it is sensible to keep hold of both both a sense of history and a sense of proportion - and perhaps also retain a sense of humour if you want to stand any chance at all of getting it right when you are commenting on Hong Kong.

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In Hong Kong, we are approaching in just over 600 days one of the most important events and this is not an exaggeration - not just in our history but in everyone's history in this decade. The transfer of sovereignty, a unique event, from the United Kingdom to China with all the guarantees that Hong Kong, one of the richest, most successful cities in the world, will stay the same.

Will it stay the same? Will it become even more successful or will it slither downhill? That is a proposition which is put from time to time and sometimes induces a degree of schizophrenia. One of the leading American business magazines last year did a poll and announced on the front page that Hong Kong was the most business- friendly city in the world. Six months later on the front page it announced the imminent death of Hong Kong. Magazines of course do not have to be as consistent

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