76 D073528 200M 2/74 Cr.P.C. 839/3
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3.
in which it has a comparative advantage over its overseas compe- titors. As much as 80%, by value, of Hong Kong's output is exported and this is why such a very high proportion of its domes- tic expenditure is represented by imports, these being, in effect, commodities in which other countries have a comparative produc- tion advantage over Hong Kong. Today, Hong Kong's principal sup- pliers include Japan, China, the United States, the United Kingdon, Taiwan and, since the oil crisis, Singapore.
6.
For almost the whole of the period since the war, Hong Kong has been especially well-known for the production of textiles (including clothing). This pre-eminence followed the arrival in Hong Kong in the early 1950's of refugee textile manufacturers from Shanghai (and the associated diversion to Hong Kong from Shanghai of shipments of newly-acquired textile machinery). It also stemmed from the Fact that the Hong Kong banking community had already been financing much of the Shanghai export trade through Hong Kong's relatively free foreign exchange market and, like the immigrant entrepreneurs, was already well-acquainted, therefore, with the rapidly expanding consumer markets of North
America and Western Europe.
7.
Even now, nearly half the manufacturing work force is engaged in the production of textiles (which account for about a half also of the total value of Hong Kong's domestic exports). And it is still the case that Hong Kong's principal overseas markets are in North America and Western Europe (the United States, the Federal Republic of Germany and the United Kingdom together taking up about 55%, by value, of Hong Kong's total domestic exports and nearly 60% of its exports of textiles). Nonetheless, Hong Kong's exports are now rather more diversified than even a few years ago, with plastic toys and dolls, transistorised radios, electronic components, household utensils and watches and clocks featuring prominently among its principal manufactures,
(c) Full-employment and Economic Growth
8. By the end of the 1950's, against the background of the rapid growth of consumer demand abroad, Hong Kong's domestic exports had expanded sufficiently rapidly not only to make up for the decline in the re-export trade but also fully to employ the grow- ing work force. This full-employment situation was to be main- tained throughout the 1960's (1961-1971), even though the working population increased over the decade by nearly 35% to 1.6 million
/persons. CONFIDENTIAL