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Governor's adviser on budgetary and fiscal and economic and monetary affairs; and the Attorney-General who is the Governor's legal adviser and the Crown Law Officer. 13. The Government Secretariat is organised into 12 branches concerned with policies in specified programme areas and two resource branches (civil service and finance). Circling the Government Secretariat are nearly 60 departments and agencies, employing over 159,000 civil servants. A network of about 320 advisory bodies augment and provide critical comment upon the official view of the desirable content of
policies in the various programme areas. In the absence of an orthodox parliamentary system, such input is also essential to public understanding and acceptance of policy decisions.
(5) The Economy
14. The management of Hong Kong's economy is based on a
commitment to the market mechanism and the free enterprise
system.
15. In the ten years ending 1981 the growth rate of the GDP in real terms was 10.1%. The growth rate of real income per
capita was affected by the high growth rate of population
in 1978, 1979 and 1980. Nevertheless, as a result of a growth rate of 7.4% in the 1970s, real income per capita by 1981 was more than twice that in 1971, (giving Hong Kong the highest per capita income in Asia, other than Japan). At the same time, the structure of the economy underwent change in the sense that the financial and allied services
sector expanded faster than the manufacturing sector, contributing 22% to the G.D.P by 1981, compared with 15% in 1971. Manufacturing contributed 27% in 1981, compared with 31% in 1971, but this sector employs 41% of the labour force, compared with 5% by the financial and allied services sector.
16. About 90% of manufacturing output is exported and domestic exports of goods (HK$80 bn in 1981) are equivalent to 60% of the GDP (HK$135 bn in 1981). So the economy's
growth record has been achieved despite its vulnerability
to external forces outside its control (including moves to
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