BRIEF 8
6
the apparent lack of industrial diversification, manufacturing
has maintained its adaptability. Garments and textiles have
continued to edge up-market, and Hong Kong is well placed in the
greatest of growth industries at the moment, electronics.
The recent influx of immigrants from China and the absorption of many
Vietnamese refugees into the workforce while it may help to
alleviate the current labour shortage and indeed enabled Hong Kong
to meet a better external demand last year than was expected is
likely to impose a considerable strain on the Territory's resources.
In the short term a coincidence of immigration with world recession
may produce higher unemployment and a sharp fall in real wages.
Immigration is the dark side of the new economic relationship with
China that has brought benefits in so many other ways.
Overall, Hong Kong stands to gain from the growth of closer
economic links with China, in particular with the development of the
›rder Province of Guangdong both in its re-emerging role of significant
entrepot port and as a source of finance, services and expertise for
collaborative enterprises. Hong Kong serves China's interests in providing
a "laboratory" within which China's trading, banking and other organisations
can gain experience of conducting business in a market economy and where the
transfer of technology from advanced economies to China can be facilitated.