3
which has a final output not far short of US$3,000
(4)
million per annum, employs about 50% of the entire labour
force and makes a contribution of over 30% to the gross
domestic product.
Determinants of Progress and Development
5.
(a) Population Growth
The determinants of this rate of economic progress
and transformation of the structure of the Hong Kong
economy, and of the rapidity of the transformation, are
various but, as I have said, I propose to deal with four
only.
6.
Since 1947 there has been a substantial increase in
the size of the population. In the last twenty years it
has virtually doubled, and now stands at 4.2 million
people.
This growth is in large measure directly
attributable to net inward migration in the late 1940's
and early 1950's. At the time, the newly arrived members
of the community posed enormous social and economic problems;
but they were determined to stay in Hong Kong and to
secure there, by their own efforts, a new life and a
higher standard of living. There was thus available,
to expand output, a pool of unused labour having a stake
in Hong Kong's economic development and willing to work
enthusiastically and relentlessly towards a better future.
The determination of these people and their previous industrial experience, together with the capital
equipment and finance and entrepreneurial expertise which
they brought with them, were to provide the basis for
Hong Kong's modern industrial revolution.
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