XN000022-1995-10-23 — Page 13

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I guess as a sense in which I could rest the case 1 want to make on these statistics, showing what Hong Kong has actually done, despite all the wiseacre predictions, modesty and political caution stops me making any comparisons with what has been achieved in, say, any European economies over a comparable period to the one I have been talking about.

At the very least, at the very least, the figures which I have mentioned to you show that a city that keeps on being killed off in the headlines is still remarkably spritely. You may remember that line in one of the Marks brothers films, when Groucho with somebody slumped drunk over the table says about the imbiber: "Either he is dead or my watch has stopped!" Well, nobody could make that mistake about Hong Kong. As has often been said, anyone who betted against Hong Kong, who betted against Hong Kong in 1984, in 1989, in 1992, lost.

Why did they lose and why did Hong Kong win? First, because in my judgment the system in Hong Kong is so astonishingly resilient. Hong Kong has coped over 40-45 years with the turbulence of living on the threshold of sometimes volcanic events to the North. Hong Kong has not just coped; Hong Kong has prospered.

Hong Kong is a free society make up very largely of refugees: refugees from Canton, refugees from Shanghai, and their energy, their hard work combined with some British ingredients which I want to come to in a moment, have produced this astonishingly successful economy. Six million people running an economy which is equivalent to 26 per cent of China's GDP - just think of that.

As David said, the fifth largest trading community in the world, I normally say the eighth largest because to say the fifth largest involves counting the European Union as one, and I am never quite sure whether that is politically correct or not! However, I am pleased to take my lead from David. Hong Kong as an export market is for Britain three times the size of China in terms of what we manage to sell.

What are those British ingredients, which put together with Chinese entrepreneurialism and hard work, have created this astonishing success story? First of all, the Rule of Law and the impartial administration of justice, so that there is a level playing field for business. A good, clean, public administration. A meritocratic Civil Serivce, which is open and accountable to the community. I now run what is almost entirely at the senior levels a Chinese administration. We have a good police force with figures for crime which are comparable to those in, say, Singapore, and a great deal better than those in most European or North American communities.

We have all the freedoms of a plural society: a free press, free worship, free assembly - what Rab Butler once called all the "noises of freedom".