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Governor's Lunar New Year message

Following is the transcript of the Lunar New Year address by the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, to be delivered this (Sunday) evening:

Hello.

At this time of year when people are - if they can possibly manage it - with their families and their friends, it's natural for all of us to think back over the previous months at all the highlights: the things that went well, and perhaps to look ahead to what's going to happen in the coming year: the exams, the holidays, the things we have to do at work, and so on.

Well, what we do in our own families we do as a community too, and looking back over the last year in Hong Kong we can see an awful lot that's gone well, for a start things that have gone well for those institutions, those parts of our community, which actually make things work, which run things.

We had, for a start, the most successful - the most democratic - elections in our history. More people registered to vote, more people exercised their civic right to vote, and the whole thing was carried off with a great deal of good humour and moderation, as you'd expect in Hong Kong.

We've also seen an agreement on the successful transfer of our administration of justice through 1997, which will make a tremendous difference to the possibilities for the Rule of Law; and as we know the Rule of Law is one of the real key ingredients in Hong Kong's well-being.

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And all the time we've seen the civil service continuing to do the job they do so well, so magnificently well - One of the best civil services in the world, serving you the men, women, and children of Hong Kong

and children of Hong Kong - doing so in a more open and accountable way than ever before, always willing to learn to do things better if they get the sort of advice on how to manage that.

So it's been a good year, I think, for all those parts of our community. I think we can also point to an improvement in the atmosphere and the relations between Britain and China. Mr Qian Qichen who runs the preparatory committee so is in a key position in China to help to shape our future, Mr Qian Qichen as Vice-Premier and Foreign Minister went to London last autumn and had some good solid working meetings with British ministers.