"I find odd the view that a Government institution is better placed to evaluate "the technical and financial viability" of a project than a commercial bank. It may well be that our banks are deficient in the kind of expertize required for assessing projects but then what we should be doing is encouraging banks to acquire such expertize or to make use of outside, commercial, expertize. I do not believe in any case that a Government machine can provide a reliable judgement on such matters, an opinion the banking members of the committee appear to have shared, for they have prudently refused to commit themselves to accepting its advice. I myself tend to mistrust the judgement of anyone not involved in the actual process of risktaking."
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People from EdinburghPoliticians from ScotlandPoliticians from Hong KongColonial governorsFinance ministers
Original Language: English
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October 9, 1970, page 117.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_James_Cowperthwaite
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John James Cowperthwaite
Sir John James Cowperthwaite KBE CMG (25 April 1915 – 21 January 2006) was a British civil servant and the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong from 1961 to 1971. His free market policies of positive non-interventionism are widely credited with turning post-war Hong Kong into a thriving global financial center.
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