Positive non-interventionism (Chinese:積極不干預) was theeconomic policy ofHong Kong; this policy can be traced back to the time when Hong Kong was underBritish rule. It was first officially implemented in 1971[citation needed] byFinancial Secretary of Hong KongJohn Cowperthwaite, who believed that the economy was doing well in the absence ofgovernment intervention but that it was important to create the regulatory and physical infrastructure to facilitatemarket-based decision making. The policy was continued by subsequent Financial Secretaries, including SirPhilip Haddon-Cave. EconomistMilton Friedman has cited it as a fairly comprehensive implementation oflaissez-faire policy.[1]
Financial SecretariesDonald Tsang,Antony Leung,Henry Tang andJohn Tsang all defended the minimal intervention approach.[2]
According to Cowperthwaite:
In the long run, the aggregate of decisions of individual businessmen, exercising individual judgment in a free economy, even if often mistaken, is less likely to do harm than the centralised decisions of a government; and certainly the harm is likely to be counteracted faster.[3]
According to Haddon-Cave:
positive non-interventionism involves taking the view that it is normally futile and damaging to thegrowth rate of an economy, particularly anopen economy, for the Government to attempt to plan the allocation of resources available to theprivate sector and to frustrate the operation of market forces.
Haddon-Cave goes on to say that the "positive" part means the government carefully considers each possible intervention to determine "where the advantage" lies, and, although usually it will come to the conclusion that the intervention is harmful, sometimes it will decide to intervene.
