HONG KONG MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY IN THE SIXTIES
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the only industry to have lost ground relatively. Domestic enamel- ware was during 1959 fourth in the table by export value, sixth by employment; 10 years later, it finds no place in either. Overseas markets have diminished or stood still, or been taken over by local industries built up under heavy tariff protection. Hong Kong's industry employed 5,300 in 1959 in 22 factories; the number of factories is reduced now to 21 with 2,200 employees.
The ship and boat building industry has failed to fulfil its export promise of the fifties. The industry is not in fact declining as its output for the domestic market and its repair work has substantially increased; it employs more people than it did 10 years ago. The steel rolling industry, again primarily geared to the domestic market, fell on lean years with the recession in building construction, competition from imports from China in the domestic market, and establishment of competing industries in its always uncertain overseas markets. A tariff-free competitive import regime associated with high cost of land is probably not the most suitable environment for the large investment usually associated with heavy manufacturing industry.
The rubber footwear industry remains an important source of employment and of export earnings, although relatively less important on both counts than it was 10 years ago. This could be said also of non-rubber footwear, and of a variety of other industries such as manufacture of furniture, flashlights, printed matter and publications. The plastic flower industry has maintained the promise it held at the beginning of the decade, both in terms of employment and export earnings, but it seems to have reached its ceiling, at least temporarily. It is an important industry socially, because of its widespread employment of out-workers. There has been good, if not spectacular, development of travel goods and hand bags, of watch cases and watch bands, of plasticware, and of photographic equipment.
The growth industries of substantial volume and value are toys, electronic equipment, and hair wigs. Toys, principally of plastic but also metal, were well up in the league at the beginning of the decade and now rank third in importance both in terms of employment and of export earnings. In 1959, there was only one factory engaged in assembling transistor radios. It is an astonishing fact that there