TNAG-1607-FCO40-22122-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1987 — Page 32

Sir,

DRAFT SPEECH

Dr

HILION CHEUNG-LEEN CBZ JP

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

14 JANUARY 1987

Adjournment Debate on

Development of Industry in Hong Kong

economic

As I see it, one of the fundamentals of Hong Kong's success is the Government's commitment to a policy of

positive non-interventionism in industry and commerce.

This policy has

merchants

enabled Hong Kong

manufacturers and

to adapt more

more quickly than their competitors in

in the

region to changes in export markets. The results are for all to see for example, our exports last year to Europe grew at a high rate, especially West Germany, where the value growth in our exports in 1986 rose by about 30% over the previous year.

However, performance of our export to the United States

in one

of our main export industries, that is the electrical and electronics industry, has apparently declined in 1986, while the performance of both South Korea and Taiwan show substantial

increases for the same period. One of the reasons therefor is

that

the over

past six years, average annual

rate growth

of

labour productivity in South Korea and Taiwan in the electrical/ electronics field has been much higher than that of Hong Kong :

for example, between 1980 and 1984, the average annual growth

rates of labour productivity in

in this field in South Korea and

Taiwan have been 22.1% and 13.6% respectively, compared to Hong Kong's figure of only 9.5%.

Nevertheless, I believe that our policy of positive

non-intervention in industry has stood us in good stead

throughout the

Because years.

of our

tax relatively simple

structure and low level of direct tax, we cannot offer all or too

the many of

ΟΙ tax holidays incentives provided by Singapore,

Taiwan and South Korea. At the same time,

time, I do believe that

there

is still much room for

Government

to strengthen or

fine-tune its policy of positive non-intervention in industry.