Friday, January 27, 1978
· 7
"We have used this favourable period to push on with our scciel programmes;
since last year I described in some detail the way in which they will transform
Hong Kong physically and socially over the next few years, I will not do so again. Suffice it to say that we have kept well up to all targets and expect
to continue so this year.
The pace of construction for all programmes and consequent physical change
has now reached the level at which we have been aiming. I know it is fast, and it
is disconcerting as well as exciting and encouraging to watch the face of Hong Kong changing so rapidly. I know it is causing acute inconvenience and- discomfort to many people, and we have every reason to be grateful to them for
the patience and good humour with which they have tolerated the dust, the
construction trucks and the pile drivers. However, the end result will soon
be a cleaner, quieter, better provided, and in many cases a more profitable life
for all, including present sufferers.
As you know I attach great importance to these changes and to their
rapid implementation.
I believe them to be the prerequisite for Hong Kong's
survival as a cohesive contented healthy and efficient cociety, and I believe
there is good support for this view amongst all sections of the population.
Insofar as there is distrust or reservations they relate not to what has
been or is being done, but to the fear that in the future something will be
attempted that will set the economy or the financial attraction of Hong Kong
at risk. Such fears are natural, but I can only say they are unfounded.
economy is the pc er house of all we wish to do here, must be, and always will
be, our prime concern.
The
We must also remember that the rest of the world is changing too,and must
be sensitive to its view of us and what we are doing. We have every right to
be proud of our present rate of progress, but I can see a Hong Kong which
faltered in these aims receiving short shrift in a world impatient with a
community irresolute in solving its long-standing social problems though
anxious to market its goods.
/Any survey
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