China's Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau marked the country's National Day yesterday with an attempt to bolster confidence and a sombre acknowledgement of trouble.
Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa (
"China is really doing very well economically amidst the downturn everywhere," Tung said after touring a shopping mall.
"And in Hong Kong we have a unique advantage of which all the other Asian countries are very envious," he said.
"We have taken advantage of China's moving forward and we will take advantage of the developments in the days and months and years to come," Tung said
"The leadership in [China's] central government really do care about Hong Kong," he said, but declined to speculate on what specifically China could do to help Hong Kong's economic woes.
Consumer sentiment in the territory is weak, property prices are bumping along at about half their 1997 peaks and the territory's blue-chip Hang Seng share index has lost nearly 40 percent so far this year.
Beijing has taken note.
In speeches in the capital marking National Day, Premier Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基) extended assurances of support to Hong Kong and Macau, Beijing-backed Chinese-language newspapers in Hong Kong reported.
Vice Premier Qian Qichen (
"The difficulties Hong Kong now faces are much worse than those of the 1997 financial crisis," Qian said, the Wen Wei Po reported on Sunday.
Hong Kong could not just rely on its stock market and property markets and needed to look at other industries, he said.
Tung declined to speculate on what specifically Beijing might have in mind.
Hong Kong observers pointed out that Beijing's help, whatever shape it might take, would be a mixed blessing.
"Autonomy has two sides, you have the power to decide for yourself, and the responsibility to look after yourself," said lawyer and legislator Margaret Ng.
Ng, along with others, said Hong Kong's flailing economy had little hope because of the system which put Tung in place.
"Tung Chee-hwa has such a limited mandate, it weakens the policies he is likely to introduce," she said.
Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau-wah said in his National Day address yesterday that the Macau Special Administrative Region "has not yet fully recovered."
Speaking at a reception in Macau to commemorate the 52nd anniversary of the establishment of the People's Republic, Ho said Macau's economic development was influenced by the "uncertainties" of the global economy as well as domestic "unemployment problems."
Macau government officials said prior to last month's attacks in the US they expected the local gross domestic product to grow between one and 2 percent in real terms this year, following a real growth of 4.6 percent last year and four years of consecutive negative growth between 1996 and 1999. Macau's unemployment rate stood at 6.3 percent in the first half of the year.
Ho, who has been at the helm since the Macau Special Administrative Region was established on Dec. 20, 1999, said last month's first post-handover legislative election had shown Macau was ruled by its people with a high degree of autonomy.
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