1166
BOARD OF TRADE JOURNAL
25 APRIL 1969
DETERMINANTS FOR EXPORT SUCCESS, continued
thiş flow. A series of measures, too diverse to mention in detail, to influence more of our best graduates to move into industry are already affecting the situation, and the recently published Swann and Dainton reports make a series of very valuable fug- gestions, many of which will be implemented by Government in the near future The Ministry of Technology has established industrial liaison\ rs attached to a large number of universities and tech- nical cet ses and through them it is helping to increase the two- way flow of communication between nearly 80 Government research tations, the universities, the technical colleges and indus- trial companies. I can think of nothing more likely to help exports in the future than a widespread Government effort to infrease the extent to which our nationally outstanding technological ability really impact on industrial products and the processes which pro- duce them. I visit nearly a hundred small and medium-sized export- ing companies each year, and I have observed, over the 3 years in which I have been in the Board of Trade, a heightened degree of technological sophistication in the average outlook of these com- panies even over that short period.
'Future growth of exports from our country is going to be increasingly dependent on the incorporation in our products of an ever-decreasing degree of design based on science/on function and on aesthetics. The most efficient production and marketing will not overcome the handicap of shortcomings in such respects. Here again policies being pursued by the Department of Education and Science and by the Ministry of Technology in the stimulation of research and development on the design of products will have long-term beneficial effects.
'We all know that the structure of British/industry has in recent years been the subject of a much greater rate of change than per- haps ever before. The rapid amalgamation of firms into larger units would. I think. have taken place willy-nilly under the pressure of modern trading conditions but it needed a body like the Indus- trial Reorganization Corporation to intoduce into the changing scene pressures towards forms of amalgamation which were logic- ally consistent with optimum industrial eliciency, and this, I think, the IRC is by and large achieving.
'Growth in the size of a company/ certainly does not give an assurance of success but it does open/up possibilities not available to smaller units. These benefits are ordinarily thought of in terms of volume of output, mechanization, increased opportunities for investment and so on. But other benefits of size are of particular importance to exports. Larger units can employ men of higher
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receive little mention by the mass media of this country. I am afraid that the picture we present of ourselves in our own press and radio at home is too often one of self-denigration, and I am aware from my travels overseas of the false impression that this can create and the detriment to our status as an exporting nation which can follow. Unfortunately we can do little to correct this but I have used this opportunity this evening to put before you, inadequately I am afraid. a picture of some Government efforts which I think receive too little recognition. I hope that the brief picture I've been able to present will prove an encouragement to members of British Chambers of Commerce overseas to pursue their very important efforts in support of British exporters."
ECGD backs £2.3 million carrier contract for Eire
THE EXPORT Credits Guarantee Department signed a Financial Guarantee on April 15 covering the financing of a 29,000 tons deadweight bulk carrier worth £2.3 million for the Republic of Ireland. The vessel will be owned by Irish Shipping Limited.
The vessel is scheduled for delivery in September 1969. and is being built by Cammell Laird & Co. (Shipbuilders & Engineers) Ltd., of Birkenhead. The loan, which is for £1.9 million, is being made available by International Finance & Services Ltd., acting on behalf of the Midland Bank Ltd., and Martins Bank Ltd., and is repayable over 10 years,
ECGD covers £2.4 million contract for Norwegian tankers
THE EXPORT Credits Guarantes Department signed a Financial Guarantee on April 16 covering the financing of three 4.300 tons deadweight solvent tankers worth £2.4 million for Norway. The vessels will be owned by Sameiet Scafalcon, K/S, AXS Geir and Sameiet, A/S Leiv Gabrielsen.
The vessels are scheduled for delivery in June, July and October 1969 and are being built by the Smith's Dock Co. Ltd. of Middlesbrough.
The loan, totalling £1.9 million. is being made available by Barclays Bank Ltd. and is repayable over 10 years.
capacity by paying larger salaries to chief executives and senior Agreement on financial arrangements
management, and result in leadership of greater intelligence and imagination than on average can/exist in their smaller predecessors. The process of takeover or amalgamation results in restructuring of organization and of management, and this often provides opportu- nity for the more dynamic med in industry to take over leadership. Larger companies are able to set up overseas marketing companies or their own sales offices where the potential volume of sales would not justify such action in the case of smaller companies. This is particularly important currently because we are faced with ever increasing difficulty in helping smailer British companies to find adequate overseas agents to represent them.'
Lord Brown then spoke of the Board of Trade's pilot scheme in Glasgow and Bristol by which financial assistance was given to small companies who wished to employ consultants to increase the efficiency of their businesses, and, as a result, nearly 250 companies in those two cities were receiving the benefit of an analysis of at least some part of their activities. 'I hope we will be able to intro- duce a national scheme soon which could bring equal benefit to all small companies./for, fundamentally, exports are a function of the total effectiveness of companies, sud Lord Brown.
Lord Brown then spoke on the Overseas Project Group, set up last year, to co-ordinate around large projects the activities of Government Departments, bankers, consultants and industry itself. One particular aspect of the work of this group is to stimulate all Government departments and nationalized industries, which are themselves large buyers of equipment, to put at the disposal of national purchasers overseas their experience as users of \British equipment at home,' he said. 'I believe that much more can be done by our national users to influence the attitude of overseas purchasers towards British equipment by putting their experience of this equipment, and the systemy that they have devised in its use, at the service of overseas governments and large corporations at a very early stage in their thinking about their own developments.
It is fegrettable that the sort of policies to which I have referred
HKK21/4
for Hong Kong harbour tunnel
The Export Credits Guarantee Department announce that agree- ment in principle has been reached in London between The Cross- Harbour Tunnel Co. Ltd. of Hong Kong and Lloyds Bank Limited on the provision of a loan to finance construction of the Hong Kong Cross-Harbour tunnel. The loan by Lloyds Bank, which will be guaranteed by the Export Credits Guarantee Department, will be for a maximum of £14 million.
The Tunnel Company are now proceeding to detailed negotia- tions with a consortium led by Costain Civil Engineering Ltd. and it is hoped that the contract will be signed next month. The loan will then bear interest at 51 per cent per annum and will be repay- able in half-yearly instalments over seven years from the estimated date of completion of the tunnel.
The prospective shareholders of The Cross-Harbour Tunnel Co. Ltd. are: Wheelock Marden & Co. Ltd., Hutchison International Ltd., the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Kwong Wan Ltd., and Sir Elly Kadoorie Successors Ltd. The Hong Kong Government has also informed the Tunnel Company that con- ditional upon receipt of formal approval from the Legislative Council it would be willing to take up shares in the company. The shareholders will severally guarantee percentages of advances secured by promissory notes adding up to 100 per cent of the same. and the Tunnel Company will also be giving a floating charge over the company's assets.
The tunnel will provide a much needed traffic link between Hong Kong island and the city of Kowloon, a crossing which has up to now been served only by vehicular ferries. The four-lane tunnel will be built by the immersed tube method, the first to be built by this technique in Asia, and thought to be the longest of its type in the world. The consulting engineers to the project are the British firms of Scott Wilson, Kirkpatrick and Partners, and Free- man, Fox and Partners.