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of it may well represent profits made by local investors, who chose to remit their profits to the UK, and by third parties who had made temporary use of HK as a home for funds, and be- lieved the time had come to move those funds.
the remit-
Just to stress the point tances made during the SE boom were of value to the UK in that they contri- buted to the UK's invisible earnings. and thus its balance of payments, as they were made out of HK dollars into sterling. But in theory, not one cent of this money need have belonged to British investors, although it is per- fectly fair to assume that a fair pro- portion of it did in fact find its way into British owned balances.
The flow of funds in the reverse direction from UK to HK still of course continues, and the access of HK to the London market is extremely useful to HK companies, although ad- mittedly the retrenchment of the OSA has made access to London more difficult.
Nonetheless, several HK companies have recently raised funds in the UK, and the interest among UK investors and institutions concerning HK com- panies is amply evidenced by the volume of coverage given to reports on HK companies (and HK in general) in the British Financial Times. Ironi- cally, this at present is greater than it was during the existence of the OSA! Those who read both the Financial Times and the US Wall Street Journal will vouch for the fact that the US market displays nothing like the same amount of interest in Hong Kong.
Common Market
cont'd
accurately Brussels) is a regional ad- ministrative centre, in fact the ‘capital' of the EEC.
must
To fulfil this type of role, Hong Kong must ensure that development takes place in two complementary directions. Firstly, industry move beyond the phases in which it tries to compete with its bigger neigh- bour on terms of price. Already this trend has started, since HK has a lead over its competitors in terms of design, quality and workmanship. This lead must be maintained, so that HK be- comes increasingly a more specialised manufacturer, concentrating on quality markets, and obtaining a high return in relation to volume of production. Again the analogy is with Switzerland, which is an acknowledged world leader in several types of highly specialised, highly profitable product
watches, precision instruments, even chocolate.
Secondly, the trend towards the ex- tension and sophistication of Hong Kong's financial and other commercial services must continue. And this includes the development of not only 'big' projects such as the building-up of an Asia dollar market, but also the development of less obvious services, such as those offered by, say, advertis- ing agencies.
Far from presenting a threat, our Common Market presents great oppor- tunities for both security and pros- perity.
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