TNAG-0735-FCO40-939-Policy-objective-for-the-developing-of-Hong-Kong-in-the-1980-1978 — Page 125

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II Government Policy in the Longer Term

Conflict of views

36.

While expressing concern about what was presently

happening to the economy, honourable Members were obviously mindful also of the implications of excessive domestic demand

for our longer term prospects and Miss Dunn, for example,

emphasised the role of stable fiscal policies and the importance

of the public sector not crowding out the private sector. But

several went further than this and, by implication, did not

agree with Mr. Alex Wu when he said that he "would be reluctant

to see us resort to more direct attempts to regulate behaviour

in the economic field".

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37.

Advisory Committee on Diversification

(a) Hong Kong Research Council

Thus Mr. James Wu called for the establishment of a

largely Government-financed Hong Kong Research Council to

undertake research in social, economic and technological

subjects and he thought we should establish the Council

straightaway and "not leave it to the conclusion of the

Advisory Committee's work next summer".

38.

I do not feel that I am competent to pass judgement

on the need for research into social problems. However, I

think we can all agree that there is a continuing need to

improve our knowledge of the workings of the economy, and the phased programme of surveys already started by the Census and Statistics Department into the activities of the tertiary

services sector and the proposed improvements to our financial

statistics provided for in recent amendments to the Banking

Ordinance and the Deposit-taking Companies Ordinance are steps in the right direction.

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