PRODUCTION AND MARKETING
hensive general display section included a number of new items developed during the year. A new automatic kerosene water heater attracted much attention. Delega- tions from Formosa, Indonesia and the Philippines attended the Exhibition, as well as many other overseas visitors who came in a private capacity. The meeting of the Sub-Committee on Trade of the United Nations' Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East was held in Hong Kong from 6th to 12th January, 1955, while the Exhibition was in progress, and as a result delegations from a wide range of countries, mainly in South East Asia, were able to visit the Exhibition and obtain some idea of the state of development of local industry. Attendance at the Exhibition exceeded one million for the second year in succession.
During the year it was announced that Government intended to reclaim from the sea an area of about 140 acres at Kun Tong on the eastern shore of Kowloon Bay, in order to provide land for new factory sites. Work was begun on the initial stages of the scheme, involving an area of 78 acres, and the first sites are expected to be available in 1955. Completion of the work on the first area is likely to take three years and will cost about $10,000,000.
The Department of Commerce and Industry is responsible for promoting industrial development and handicrafts in the Colony. The Trade Development Division, which was set up in the Department during 1953, continued to expand its activities.
Handicrafts or home industries are not formally organized, nor do they receive any official encourage- ment from Government. Nevertheless, production is
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