SECRET
Finance
Revenue and ronditure
them is out of the question.
All attempts to improve the
trade union structure have failed in spite of the Hong Kong
Government's efforts to promote trade union education and the
efforts of some international trade union organisations.
PUBLIC FINANCE
30. Hong Kong receives virtually no financial aid from
Her Majesty's Government. Since the end of the last war,
with one or two exceptions, it has run a substantial surplus
on the recurrent budget, from which it has financed its own
development expenditure, which has been on a massive scale.
The housing programme in particular has been an outstanding
success, and has been carried through entirely from local
resources, Aid from the United Kingdon has been limited to
grants towards higher education projects (the two universities
and technical education) and a loan and grants for the
development of Kai Tak airport. It is a sore point in
Hong Kong that since 1945 we have not felt able to make
regular aid ellocations to the Colony. Cur reason is that
if they run short of
they are acle to manage without;
development finance, our general attitude has been that they
should raise local loans (the public debt is very low) or
increase taxation. But since we provide no sid, we cannot
exercise control over their financial policies;
the ultimate
responsibility of the Secretary of State is in practice purely
formal, and they are to all intents and purposes financially
autonomous.
31. Annual revenue and expenditure have ne-riy dcubled since
1963 to £170m. and £139, respectively in 1969/70. There
was a budget deficit in 1959/60 (£2.8m) and in 1965/66 (£8.6m)
but in all other years since 1947 surpluses have been realised.
/ A surplus
JICL ST
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