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Mr Tsang then went on to describe the vision, saying:

Hong Kong is already well-established as one of the principal services centres both globally and in the Asia-Pacific region. The Government accepts the challenge of building on this success to ensure that Hong Kong strengthens its position as a provider of high-quality services to the rest of the region and to the world.

Hong Kong has a special role to play as an international business centre, in particular by providing world-class services to the Asia-Pacific region. The Government believes that Hong Kong's economic success in the next century will depend crucially upon the quality and the competitiveness of its service industries.

Markets and private businesses have led Hong Kong's past success in the development of its services sector, and this must continue in the future. The Government believes that free markets, competition and enterprise best assure innovation, competitiveness and quality.

Business leaders must determine the pace and direction of the future development of Hong Kong's services sector. The Government accepts a commitment to support the services sector by ensuring that official policies and programmes facilitate rather than hinder business decisions and by ensuring that the markets for services are as open and competitive as possible.

Eight key components in framework for action

The Government believes that its framework for supporting the services sector of the economy should be built around eight key components, the Financial Secretary. Mr Donald Tsang, said in presenting the budget document, "The Servies Sector - Support and Promotion" in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday).

These key components described in the document were: