HONG KONG
ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK
DEVA ROWELL
BOARD OF GOVERNORS
TWENTY-FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING
4-6 MAY 1992
GS-18
UNITED KINGDOM
PETER D. M. FREEMAN
Alternate Governor
On behalf of the United Kingdom Delegation, let me thank first of all the Government of Hong Kong for their generous hospitality in welcoming us all to the beautiful city of Hong Kong. The successful way with which Hong Kong copes with its problems were eloquently described by its Governor, Lord Wilson, yesterday morning. The appointment as his successor of Mr. Chris Patten, the first former Governor of the Asian Development Bank to become Governor of Hong Kong, will ensure a continuity of economic and political policy. Among Britain's basic responsibilities to Hong Rong is the maintenance of its economic prosperity and social stability. This is a key principle in our approach to the transition in 1997. The aim is to achieve a smooth transfer of sovereignty with all Hong Kong institutions and social, political, judicial and economic systems intact and functioning with full vitality.
Mr. Chairman, you and fellow delegates have seen the evidence all around us of the buoyancy of the Hong Kong economy, in which Britain now has an investment portfolio of some twenty billion pounds sterling. There has been a renewed surge of business confidence following the signing with the Chinese government of the Memorandum of Understanding on the new airport last year This major infrastructural development and the associated projects will help Hong Kong to continue to contribute to the development of China and of the region well into the next century.
I am delighted to participate in the Silver Jubilee of an institution which has made such a remarkable contribution to the success and prosperity of Asia. I should like to offer to the Asian Development Bank my congratulations and those of the British Government on its first successful 25 years. Your Annual Report, Mr President, includes a wide-ranging survey of its achievements. It shows the success stories and the examples they have set for other developing countries, and the tasks which still remain to be completed.
The Report rightly says that the links between international trade and foreign direct investment are fundamental. A freer and more open trading system, offering greater access to the markets of the developed countries, would be a vital impetus to growth in the developing world. A successful conclusion to the current GATT negotiations would underpin the economic reforms already undertaken and help ensure that the protectionist trends which have hurt developing countries so much in the past do not return. By contrast, if narrow sectional interests are allowed to
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