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Current Hong Kong China Economic Developments
Official opening of Guangdong Enterprises Ltd
1.
January 1981
Guangdong Enterprises, the general agency in Hong Kong for the coordination of the province's economic organisations and export and import corporations, was officially opened by Vice-Governor of Guangdong, Zeng Dingshi, on 5 January. The opening ceremony at City Hall was attended by some 1,700 people. Although China Resources Company (CRC), as the long-established China trade organisation in Hong Kong, apparently continue to exercise some degree of overall direction and coordination, the opening of Guangdong Enterprises will clearly undermine CRC's previous monopoly.
National economic policies and their effect on Guangdong
2.
The Chinese leadership is evidently concerned that national economic retrenchment ("readjustment"), including the scrapping of many major capital construction projects, does not seriously disrupt the planned development of Special Economic Zones. Nevertheless, there are signs of some ambivalence towards the direction and pace which development is presently taking. Da Gong Bao, for example, on 17 January reported Deng Xiaoping's comments on the subject at December's Central Work Conference in Peking. Deng was reported as supporting the decision to set up Special Economic Zones in Guangdong and Fujian which would continue to be developed. However, "the steps and methods should be readjusted and the pace can be slowed down a bit".
3.
Da Gong Bao on 9 January also carried a report on the positive effects of readjustment of Guangdong's economy. This said that, despite the closing down, interruptions in production, amalgamations and redirection of some 617 industrial enterprises in the province, production rates have actually increased. Industrial growth in the whole province in 1980 was around 8% a rate which exceeded the original target of 6%.
4
Economic readjustment in the province has meant the cutting back on major capital construction projects in order more fully to develop a light industrial base. The growth in the light industrial sector has now overtaken that in heavy industry, with the former accounting for 61% of total industrial output. According to present readjustment plans this proportion will be increased to 63% during 1981.
Processing contracts in Guangdong
5.
The weekly China Economic News on 5 January gave statistics on the numbers of processing/assembling industries and compensation trade agreements in Guangdong which had been concluded with foreign investors. According to the brief article, equipment worth more than US$90 million has been
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