TNAG-2329-FCO40-3373-Hong-Kong-contacts-with-academics-and-writers-1991 — Page 25

2.4.

money from wigs and plastic flowers, and then it was camphor wood chests. That all went wrong somehow the wigs disappeared overnight, like the bowler hats in London, and watches and consumer electronics were the rage, after that toys. Hong Kong then progressed to shipping and was told that it was bigger than the Greeks. That all changed and somebody announced one day that Hong Kong was the fourth largest finance centre in the world; banks were springing up all over the place. In 1970 Hong Kong discovered the stock-market. Everybody was involved. It could take up to six months to have a shirt made because the tailors were preoccupied with their stock-market deals."

"Hong Kong is the most exciting city on earth. You only have

to be there an hour to feel the energy of the place: 5,5m [actually, 6m] driver-ants going for their lives. Hongkong's average per capita income in 1989 was $11,000 - Britain's was $12,000. At average growth levels not recent booms, but the growth pattern over the last 20 years its living standards will be higher than Britain's within three to four years."

"Yet one cannot deny that underneath the bustle today Hong Kong is

depressed, edgy and insecure as it moves closer to 1997. The essential ingredient of this insecurity is, of course, 'fear': fear that the freedoms of its inhabitants will be curtailed, fear of retribution if they do not conform and obey, and fear of the uncertainty of it all. Uncertainty is the greatest enemy of economic progress. One contributory factor to all this uncertainty is that Hong Kong was not given an equal place at the negotiating table

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Hong Kong needs to find its own collective voice. It needs its own "United Front". The OMELCO representative in London has written to me implying as much with the following comment on an earlier draft of this paper. He wrote this:-

"I think we may need to see an agreement amongst Hong Kong people about the sorts of things which they would like to see discussed in the forum and an articulation of the value systems which they are trying to preserve.

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I agree with him; and in order to do so, I hope in due course with a partner from the U.K. to solicit views about the project from representatives of the following sectors of Hong Kong society:-

a) The Schools and Educational System

b) Finance, Commerce and Industry

c)

The Professions