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Following is a speech by the Financial Secretary, Mr John C Tsang, at the Premiere of Hong Kong Film Series "10 Years and Running: Recent Hong Kong Cinema" at the Walter Reade Theatre, Lincoln Centre, New York on October 17 (New York time):
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening to you all.
It gives me great pleasure to be here tonight to open the premiere of the Hong Kong film series "10 Years and Running: Recent Hong Kong Cinema", co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Centre and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York.
I am delighted that the Film Society has chosen to feature Hong Kong films in the 45th New York Film Festival. That the film festival has also presented the seven-film series "China Modern: A Tribute to Cathay Studios" is an acknowledgement that Hong Kong films enjoy great popularity here in New York, and we appreciate the solid compliment it pays to our film industry. Certainly, I have to thank our brilliant directors and actors for all their great work.
The title of the series "10 Years and Running" has broad connotations for us. It is not only a commemoration of the great achievements of our vibrant film industry, which has since come under the spotlight, so to speak, harvesting top awards in prestigious international film events. Most recently, of course, Hong Kong-born director Wayne Wang took the Golden Shell for Best Film at the 55th International Film Festival of San Sebastian in Spain for his film "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers". So, look for that film when it comes to New York. We are proud of his achievements.
But "10 Years and Running" also accurately reflects Hong Kong's success story since it became a Special Administrative Region in 1997.
The pessimistic prediction of "the death of Hong Kong" turned out to be a false prophecy. Instead, Hong Kong has continued to thrive. We continue to impress the international community by being rated a first class economy, and we have come out among the top in many categories of assessment.
Perhaps the most notable is the rating by Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, which have named us the world's freest economy for 13 consecutive years. This is echoed by the Fraser Institute and the Cato Institute, which has ranked us first for economic freedom since rankings were first published in 1996.
And, there are the rating agencies' scores. If I may say so, it is a long list of "economic Oscars", and it is testimony of how well we have been faring.
Our economy has done well, expanding briskly in the second quarter of 2007, with GDP accelerating to a 6.9% growth in real terms over a year earlier. Our GDP forecast for 2007 is expected to be around US$200 billion. We are continuing to see phenomenal growth. Last year our stock exchange raised over US$42 billion in IPO, placing us second behind London. As at end July 2007, total market capitalisation of Hong Kong's stock market was over US$2.2 trillion, making us the second largest in Asia.
Our fundamentals remain sound as evident by our robust Foreign Currency Reserves, which stand at US$138 billion. It places us 9th in the world.
Naturally, we have had the odd anxious moment since 1997 - but I have come on board at a good time, and I am here to move forward, to open up new dimensions. We pride ourselves as Asia's world city and we will continue striving to excel!
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have no doubt that you will enjoy the movies in this retrospective series, and I thank you for coming along this evening!
Ends/Thursday, October 18, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:30
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