香港總督府
CONFIDENTIAL
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
HONG KONG
7 July 1980
*
My Lord,
ANNUAL REVIEW: HONG KONG 1979/80
1. This Annual Review has been delayed by my own absence until late January, followed immediately by a long Royal visit and the introduction of the budget. I have therefore written it to cover the financial year 1979/80, rather than the calendar 1979. The usual calendar of events attached, however, covers calendar 1979 only.
2.
The period produced its full quota of drama for Hong Kong: extraordinary developments in the Sino/Hong Kong relationship: floods of boat refugees from Vietnam; illegal immigration from China so massive as to require reinforcement of the garrison; inflation and threat to the equilibrium of the economy, and finally some unrest and industrial action in the public service. It was a busy and exciting year which kept this goverment fully stretched but it had a generally satisfactory outcome.
The Social Programme and the Economy
3.
These were the highlights and I will describe some of them and their implications below. But in spite of them the massive expansion of services to the public such as housing, education, medical and health services and social welfare, supported by large capital expenditure on buildings and land formation, were all maintained. These programmes, and the expansion of the public service generally, have been funded by an average growth rate in expenditure on general revenue account of 10% per annum in real terms over the last ten years. There have been inevitable fluctuations, and last year to curb inflation the growth rate was cut back to 6.9% in real terms after 17.9% and 24.2% were achieved in the previous two years. But the new
/ Hong Kong
The Rt Hon The Lord Carrington KCMG MC Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs
CONFIDENTIAL
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