Government&politicalDuring the colony times, the government of Hong Kong is not the same as now, at that time the governor had the greatest power and those governor was appointed by the British Monarch. Most of the government officials are appointed by the British government and at that time there was no district council but instead district board and the legislative council members are not elected by direct elections. The first governor is Sir Henry Pottinger appointed in year 1841 and has a duration of 1 year and 318 days for his terms of office and with the last governor Chris Patten appointed in year 1992 and has the terms of office for 4 years and 356 days.
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Chris Patten: last governor of HK |
Voting system
The Legislative council was set up in year 1843 and at that time the usage of the legislative council is to give advise to governor's administrations. Unlike now the members of the legislative council were appointed by the governor. The first ever election was held in year 1985 and the first direct election was in year 1991. In year 1995 the fully direct election was first made. In the election held in 1998 there was inly 20 seats for geographical constituencies and 30 seats for functional constituencies. For district boards, it was first set up in year 1949 and the district board was used for a channel of communication between the government and citizens and the government divided Hong Kong into 42 small areas. The members of the district board are appointed by the government officials.
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Economy
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In year 1995, it has a GDP of $143.7 billion with a growth rate of 4.6% and the per capita GDP is $23,258. It has a inflation rate of 8.7% and the unemployment rate of 3.2%. By the unemployment rate can shows that the economy at that time was not really good, by comparing with year 1993 with 2.1% and year 1994 with 2.0% it has an increase and it can reflect that more and more people lost their job. Also in the late 1990s, an investment boom in telecommunication and Internet related business emerged in the US and around the world and known as dot-com bubble. Last but not least in year 1997, there was the Asian financial crisis and the economy was not really well.