Honorary Patron

The Hon Tung Chee Hwa
Chief Executive, HKSAR
People's Republic of China

Hong Kong is proud to present the World Services Congress 2001, an important international forum to explore issues affecting the future development of the global service economy.

The industrial revolution in the eighteenth century has brought unprecedented growth in the world's economic development. Now, at the beginning of a new millennium, the New Economy is taking shape. Leveraging the rapid advancement in information and communications technology, services will be an essential force to take the global economy for another quantum leap. The continued globalization and liberalization of services will create many opportunities and challenges for business around the world. They call for new thinking on many issues. The World Services Congress 2001, the first international forum of its kind in the new millennium, will address public and private service sector issues related to the development of a global service economy. It presents a good opportunity for us to collaborate on issues that will shape the future prosperity of the world.

Hong Kong is the premier services centre in Asia. With a services sector accounting for 85% of our GDP, the freest economy in the world, and our position as the gateway to the Mainland of China where the ongoing liberalization of its service industries presents huge opportunities for businessmen around the world, Hong Kong is best placed to host the first World Services Congress in the new millennium.

Please join us and participate in the World Services Congress 2001. We look forward to welcoming you in Hong Kong.

Honorary Patron

Mr Mike Moore
Director - General
World Trade Organization

I am very pleased to have this opportunity to send a message of support and solidarity to the World Services Congress 2001. I believe this event can make a major contribution to thinking and policy development in a key area of world trade.

One of the most striking developments in the multilateral trading system since the inception of the WTO in 1995 has been the speed with which it has assimilated the liberalization of trade in services, once so controversial, as a vital element in economic growth and international cooperation. The idea that the trading system should ignore the industries which everywhere produce the bulk of output and employment now seems bizarre, especially since the electronic revolution has generated cross-border delivery of services on a huge scale. The agreements on telecommunications and financial services which were concluded in 1997 were major achievements, but since January 2000 WTO Members have again been deeply engaged in a new round of comprehensive negotiations for the further liberalization of services trade. The false image of services liberalization as primarily a concern of the developed world has been exploded by the strong participation of the developing countries in the GATS, which because of its flexibility is seen as the most development-friendly of the major WTO agreements.

To a great extent this evolution reflects the efforts of the international service industry organizations to educate the public and motivate governments. This Congress, which precedes by only two months the WTO's Fourth Ministerial Conference in Qatar, is a very well-timed opportunity to demonstrate the huge potential for growth in services markets and to relate the ongoing negotiations to the wider process of trade liberalization in the WTO. I hope it will also pass the message that in services even more obviously than in traditional trade protectionism is self-defeating, and that it is those who liberalize, not their trading partners, who will benefit first and most from the liberalization process.