1996-97 Budget Speech : INTRODUCTION

1996-97 Budget Speech

INTRODUCTION

Mr President,

INTRODUCTION

1. I move that the Appropriation Bill 1996 be read a second time.

2. This is a very proud, a very privileged moment for me. Proud because I am the first Financial Secretary who grew up here. Privileged because I am delivering this Budget to the first fully-elected Legislative Council in Hong Kong's history. The fact that I, like all the Members of this Council, am very much part of this community gives the Budget special meaning and gives all of us a special responsibility. I say this because Hong Kong is our community. It is our home. And its future is our future.

3. A Budget is not simply an accounting exercise. It is not just a routine report on the territory's economic and financial well-being. It is, with the Governor's Policy Address, one of the two set-piece occasions each year when we in the Government:

account for our stewardship of Hong Kong's economic and social affairs;
address the concerns of the community, which Members of this Council have articulated so forcefully; and
discharge our duty of leadership by offering a clear vision of what the future holds for Hong Kong.

4. I shall have a lot more to say this afternoon about Hong Kong's future and about my vision of what can be achieved if the Government, this Council and business leaders can go on working together in the best interests of the community we serve. I spoke of a duty of leadership. It is a duty I and my colleagues in the Civil Service take very seriously. To put it simply, it is our duty to offer our community a clear description of what can be achieved and what we need to do to make our vision a reality.

5. My distinguished predecessor, Sir Hamish Macleod, made personal consultations with every Member of the Legislative Council a central feature of his budget preparations. In preparing my first Budget, I have continued this practice. The responsibility for the Budget is mine, of course, but the valuable contributions of Honourable Members have made my task a great deal easier. I am also grateful for the support and sheer hard work of my colleagues in the Civil Service in preparing my Budget.

6. But I have broken with Sir Hamish's approach in one respect. I want to make the Budget more accessible. I want to make it easier for the community, as well as for members of this Council, to get at the facts, the assumptions and the policy proposals which it contains. So, besides producing the entire set of budget documents in both English and Chinese for the first time, I have adopted a very simple, three-part structure.

In the first part, I shall look back at the trends and developments which have shaped our economy and our way of life and brought us the prosperity we enjoy today.
In the second part, I will describe the current performance of the economy and look at the prospects for the year ahead.
In the final part, I will describe how, in the next century, Hong Kong can achieve its full potential as a sworld-class service economy.

As a consequence, my revenue and expenditure proposals do not appear in a single section as in previous budgets. They are set out in the second and third parts. In another break with tradition, I will deliver the conclusion to my speech in Cantonese.

[1996-97 Budget Speech]