UK EYES A
imported
advantage of the Hong Kong Government's encouragement to medium/heavy engineering
operations to set up activity in Hong Kong. A communist firm has acquired from the
government 112,000 sq ft of land on Tsing Yi island to establish a factory producing,
primarily for export, small lathes, drilling and milling machines; to assemble (from/ Chinese components) plant for the production of these machines; to alter the above
machines as required to meet certain overseas market specifications, and to
manufacture spare parts, The factory would employ 600 people and cost approximately
$10 million. Financing will be reportedly through communist banks. This project
represents an attempt by China to exploit the combination of Hong Kong's open
market for materials and technology, transhipment facilities, good communications
and favoured tariff status in expanding the sales of her industrial products.
USA market is reportedly one of the main export targets for the products of the
new company.
The
20. Trade Unions. Estimated paid-up membership of trade unions dominated by, or
sympathetic towards, the communists was, in 1976, about 238,000: this represents
about 73% of the total trade union membership but only about 12% of the total
labour force in Hong Kong. The communist unions are most active in the textile
industry, shipyards and public utilities and they act together through the left-wing
Federation of Trade Unions. There is however no strong tradition of union militancy
in Hong Kong.
FUTURE
21. The market for Chinese products is expected to expand in the next few years as
the Hong Kong economy grows and because of the increased effort that China is
putting into marketing its goods there. The Chinese also exploit Hong Kong as a
very useful test market for their goods for the rest of Asia, a role increasingly
important as China seeks to develop further her export trade. It seems likely that
as part of the effort to expand total oil sales China will aim to capture a larger
13 UK EYES A
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THE ORIGINAL HAS BEEN RETAINED
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SECTION 3 (4) OF THE PUBLIC RECORDS ACT 1958