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Following is a speech by the Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, at a reception hosted by the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Mr Joseph WP Wong, for Hong Kong businessmen in Ha Noi, Viet Nam today (November 17, Ha Noi time) (English only):
Ladies and gentlemen,
ItĄ¯s my pleasure to be here this evening to join you. APEC is a very important forum for us. We were one of the early members of the family of 20 odds as Joseph has just said, it represents an organisation where we are there on our own, together with other parties on equal footing. We try to play a very active role in APEC from the outset. All spectrum of this work, we are small in size in terms of population, but we are active in participation in most of its activities. We regard this important because our role as an international centre, as a world city, is compulsive to perform an active role in organisation of this kind. It is valuable to us, and it is important to us to ensure our international dimension is fully underlined in all spectrum of our work.
I was in Viet Nam about six years ago travelling here as a tourist, spending two days here in Ha Noi, and then travelling to Ho Chi Minh City for another two days. There has been a change over that period. And holding of the APEC LeadersĄ¯ Meeting here on this occasion is very symbolic and very important. It draws our attention to a number of things. First of all, as Joseph said, this is one of the fastest growing areas in Asia, enjoying a rapid growth, a change in policy, and it is perhaps one of the most dynamic areas in the region in which Hong Kong people, in order to maintain an international profile, should continue to take a keen interest to invest and to participate in this growth.
I see there are enormous chances of it, particularly as now Viet Nam joins as a contracting party of the World Trade Organization. What does it mean? It means that itĄ¯s a market which is going to be more open, not only to come from trade in commodities but also from trade in services, and then open more doors to investment opportunities. And I think for Hong Kong people, entrepreneurial in its own blood would certainly not lose sight of these opportunities. And I hope that our activities in the coming few days would encourage the Vietnamese Government to do much more.
I was here since yesterday. I had a brief meeting with the President and he congratulated us on the election of Mrs Margaret Chan to be the Director-General of WHO. And there underlines another point, it is the international dimension of Hong Kong. We are small, but we are active. We want to play a leadership role and thatĄ¯s where we have been doing. And I think that helps our country in a period of rapid growth, to do our part, making sure our market continues to open and more open to anywhere else in the Mainland, always playing a role as a bridge, as a revolving door as IĄ¯ve been saying, taking international interest, investment into the Mainland, and bringing the well-established enterprises in the Mainland to the rest of the world. That is where our role lies in the years ahead.
Viet Nam offers enormous opportunities in terms of aviation. I hope we are able to talk a bit more and see whether we can have more air connections with Viet Nam. In our talks, we will talk whether we will have more trade opportunities, particularly in services where we are strong. In the coming days of the APEC meetings, leaders and I will be discussing a number of things, in particular about the Doha Round. Doha Round is important for us, because we believe in Hong KongĄ¯s multilateral trade system, this is where we grow strong. We are small, we cannot fight on the bilateral front. But in the multilateral discipline, we may prosper. For that reason, we will try hard to reactivate the ministerial meeting. We went through a very good period when it was held in Hong Kong. And then it went to sleep. I hope, after summer, we will give it a push. These messages, I hope we are going to give after the LeadersĄ¯ Meeting, will push the activity in Geneva and will bring, I hope, the discussion of Doha Round to a good finality.
Ladies and gentlemen, I will be doing my part and I am sure you would bring the Hong Kong message to the rest of the world, particularly using the forum like APEC. The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) is doing its part too. In other words, other businessmen play an active role in that as well. And congratulation and I am afraid a lot of work for Mr Nightingale in trade facilitation. But that is important representing Hong KongĄ¯s interest in regional affairs and pushing trade, investment, flow of people and capital to new frontiers.
Thank you very much for coming to participate in this party. I am grateful for your help, support and encouragement on this occasion. We will go around the APEC countries, we will bring Hong KongĄ¯s flame and torch around for this country, making sure the Hong Kong profile remains high.
Thank you very much.
Ends/Friday, November 17, 2006
Issued at HKT 22:54
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