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Article: Is Hong Kong ripe for a bit of central planning? (Chinese rule)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- April 12, 1997
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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HONG KONG
SURVEYS of economic freedom around the world regularly put Hong Kong at the top of the league. Free-marketeers drool over the territory's low, flat taxes and its refusal to contemplate an industrial policy. Minimal government is often deemed to have contributed mightily to Hong Kong's prosperity. And when it comes to economics few people doubt China's word when it says it will preserve Hong Kong's system: why tamper with success?
Yet the people around Tung Chee-hwa, who will be Hong Kong's chief executive, are contemplating a more interventionist economic policy. Mr Tung bemoans the lack of a high-tech manufacturing sector in Hong Kong, and says ...