6
PROGRESS
which were held in Hong Kong in readiness to meet quickly the orders expected from neighbouring parts of Asia. More shipping companies, too, adopted Hong Kong as a base for owning ships and controlling their movements. In October the Government announced that it would set up a skilled study to investigate whether a site at Kwai Chung would be capable of development as a container terminal. This feasibility study will produce for the benefit of pro- spective developers the scale of costs likely to be involved should containerization come to Hong Kong as it has to other ports (in- cluding some whose industries and products are not yet wholly suited to the technique). In the meantime a quiet and locally relevant revolution proceeded during 1968 in the greater use of the palleti- zation of cargo. Thus, having long justified its reputation as one of the busiest and fastest turn-around ports in Asia, Hong Kong kept abreast of modern techniques which might enhance efficiency still further.
As further evidence of Hong Kong's role in international com- merce, the Indo-Pacific Committee of the International Council for Scientific Management held its conference in October at the City Hall. Delegates paid tribute to the active role played by the Colony in the affairs of that council.
ニラ
There were also moves in the field of international finance during the middle of the year. An Act of Parliament was passed in West- minster which empowered Britain to provide the guarantees which are necessary for dependent territories to join the Asian Development Bank. It was likely that Hong Kong's formal application to join the bank would be made around the end of 1968.
It is disappointing, but in current philosophies hardly surprising, that the spectacular growth in value and the steady improvement in quality of Hong Kong's exports of textiles and garments to the markets of the world should have generated still more requests from Governments overseas for additional restraints on those exports. Seven such requests were received during the year. On these and other matters, the Commercial Relations Division of the Commerce and Industry Department engaged in negotiations in Paris, Ottawa, Stockholm, Oslo, London and Cape Town, as well as at home in Hong Kong. An Australian delegation came for consultation in May and a two-week negotiation with a Benelux