UK: LONDON: HONG KONG GOVERNOR CHRIS PATTEN VISIT

(23 Oct 1995) English/Nat

The Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, is in London to encourage business to keep investing in the territory.

Patten told a gathering of British businessmen that the 1997 hand-over to China has not dimmed business confidence in Hong Kong.

He said that British investment in the territory has climbed steadily since the treaty handing control back to the Chinese was signed in 1984.

Britain's businessmen gathered in London's Hilton Hotel on Monday to hear the Governor of Hong Kong give his verdict about the territory's prospects after 1997.

It is less than two years now before it reverts to Chinese rule.

The hand-over has prompted fears that the Chinese government will crack down on Hong Kong's entrepreneurial spirit.

The tiny British territory is one of Asia's fiercest economic tigers. It has averaged a GDP growth rate of 18 percent over the past two years and manufacturing companies based there employ four million people in China.

Patten told businessmen that while the government could give no watertight guarantees after 1997, the business community was optimistic about the territory's prospects.

SOUNDBITE:
It would be exceptionally unlikely if in 1997 Hong Kong stayed the same, but I believe that it will remain true to itself. I believe passionately that Hong Kong represents the wave of the future in Asia and it is not destined for history's backwater.
SUPER CAPTION: Chris Patten, Governor of Hong Kong

The confidence factor in Hong Kong is vital.

The territory, once described as a barren rock, has none of its own resources and has built up its wealth entirely through its dynamic business community.

The British government is hoping that the lure of Hong Kong's wealth will persuade China to leave it as part of a special economic zone -- governed at a distance by Beijing.

SOUNDBITE:
What I can say is that China has undertaken that Hong Kong should continue as it is for fifty years after 1997. That's contained in an international treaty, lodged at the United Nations. And beyond that, it's hugely in China's interest that Hong Kong should stay the same and remain successful.
SUPER CAPTION: Chris Patten, Governor of Hong Kong

The argument seems to be working. Most businessmen expressed little concern about Hong Kong's imminent reversion to Chinese rule.

But others are concerned that economic freedom and civil liberties -- especially for the Hong Kong Chinese -- may not mean the same thing.

This businessman is looking at Hong Kong as a new area for business.

SOUNDBITE:
Its influence is not just with China but in the whole Pacific region and the whole Asian sub-continent. So I do believe if China wants to open its markets and to develop its role as an economic player. I think we'll see Hong Kong as an important part of that package.
SUPER CAPTION: Barclay Low, Don & Low Ltd

SOUNDBITE:
I first went to Hong Kong in '89, which was just after Tiananmen Square, and Hong Kong at that time was full of frightened people. The importance of Hong Kong is its people and the British government at that time should have offered 3 million or so people a British, not a Hong Kong British, passport - but a British passport. This would have given the people the confidence and an insurance.
SUPER CAPTION: Robert Crutchley, director of Micro Metallic Ltd

Concerns about political freedom go right to the top of the British establishment in Hong Kong.

Patten recently prompted a political storm in Britain when he announced that Britain should give British passports to 3 million Hong Kong Chinese.


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