TNAG-0381-FCO40-427-Sterling-assets-and-balance-of-payments-of-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 154

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more than in the past, be features of the Hong Kong

scene.

31.

III Conclusion

I would not like to leave you with the impression

that the Government's role in the economic growth process

is an entirely passive one.

The Government is

pre-occupied with the provision of public services and the

development of the infrastructure rather than with

participating in decision making in the private sector;

and, certainly, the rate of growth of public expenditure

is largely dependent on the economic performance of the

private sector. But, as the largest single spending

agency, the Government can, and does, exert a considerable

influence on the efficiency with which the economy operates.

It is, therefore, of paramount importance for the

Government, in making its expenditure decisions, not only

to pay careful attention at all times to priorities,

standards and the proper co-ordination of departmental

efforts, but also to avoid setting up physical constraints

to private development and to remove them when they are

identified.

32.

Yet it is not just through its expenditure

decisions that the Government can influence economic growth.

In accepting that the Government has a responsibility for

ensuring that the collective will of the market place

is not frustrated and for seeing that confidence in the

market mechanism is not eroded, it accepts an obligation

/to provide......