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Successor can count on me: Governor
The Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, said the first Chief Executive could certainly count on his support and good wishes, both before and after July 1 next
year.
Delivering his policy address at the opening of the 1996-97 Legislative Council session today (Wednesday), Mr Patten said everyone would want the Chief Executive to succeed in one of the toughest and most exhilarating jobs in the world.
"I am sure that my successor will be able to count on the support of the whole community as he or she sets about the job. The first Chief Executive can certainly count on my support and good wishes, both before and after July 1 next year.
"We in Hong Kong will want the Chief Executive to succeed because we want the transition to succeed. To succeed triumphantly.
"How could we want anything else? I want, we all want, Hong Kong to do better in the future, after 1997, than it has done in the past," he said.
The Governor said next year, when his successor took the oath of office, it would be a solemn moment, freighted with hopes and anxieties.
It would be an exciting moment, too - an especially challenging one for China.
"There is hardly a problem that China faces that will not be easier to tackle if things go well in Hong Kong. And the reverse is true.
"What is more, the future relationship between the Government in China and Hong Kong goes to the very heart of so many of the issues which are going to determine what sort of country China is in the next century, and how it plays its role in the region and the world." said the Governor.
Mr Patten said for his successor to chart the way ahead to completion of the transition, the main ingredients of any programme would include the following 10 key elements:
to retain the free market and attachment to liberal economics.
to increase competition in areas like transport and telecommunications.
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