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More cause for optimism than pessimism over HK's future

One of the greatest challenge for Hong Kong post 1997 is to manager its relationship with its new sovereign, to convince China that the territory can be trusted to exercise its autonomy responsibly in ways that will keep faith with the "one country, two systems" concept.

Speaking at a business luncheon in Melbourne - the last leg of her week-long visit in Australia - the Chief Secretary, Mrs Anson Chan, said today (Thursday) that with only some 280 days to go before the handover, much still remained to be done to resolve a number of transitional issues.

However, on the future of the territory, she said there was more cause for optimism than pessimism.

She noted that since 1984 a lot had been done to give effect to the promises in the Joint Declaration in institutionalising Hong Kong's autonomy in place of what was before a more informal arrangement whereby Britain simply left Hong Kong to run its own affairs.

"Last year we had very important agreements between Britain and China over the establishment of a Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong in 1997 and financing of the new airport.

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"Major issues agreed this year include the setting up of new personal communications services and further expansion of our container port," she said.

On a recent development, the Chief Secretary also welcomed the offer from the Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Qian Qichen, to open a dialogue with those people in Hong Kong who had different views about the pace of democratisation in the territory.

"Both sovereign powers are working hard to resolve the outstanding issues," she said.

"Agreements between China and Britain are important guarantees for our future. But the really vital factor is the resolve of Hong Kong people themselves."

Mrs Chan said the overwhelming majority of Hong Kong people were determined to make the "one country, two systems" concept work.