It is indeed a great pleasure for me to meet with our Canadian friends and share with you the IT developments taking place in Hong Kong. I vividly recall my own visit to your country towards the end of last year where I was most impressed with what you are doing in developing cutting edge technologies. But before I get down to IT business, let me just quickly review our economic performance during the past year. 2000 was a pretty good year. GDP has grown by about 10 per cent, which is double the rate we were predicting back in March last year.
Prices are stable, with slight deflation which has helped keep costs down, particularly rents.
The unemployment rate is edging down. The recent cuts in interest rates are likely to boost consumer sentiment and help alleviate the burden of mortgage holders. Our currency has remained rock solid thanks to the linked exchange rate with the US Dollar. And over the past year we have also seen a resurgence of interest in Hong Kong as a regional base for multinational companies. In the area of information technology, we are doing as well, if not better, than our general economic performance.