HONG KONG MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY IN THE SIXTIES
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factories which contribute some 60 per cent of manufacturing output; and, significantly, they are to be found also in increasing numbers among the small factories which contribute the remaining 40 per cent of output.
A new and much better educated generation of workers also made its presence felt during the decade and they are increasingly to be found in industrial employment. The notion that craftsmen and artisans have a dignified place in the scheme of things is beginning to be accepted at all levels of society, if only because they command the good wages that enable them to bring up their families in reasonable comfort. The next 10 years will witness a great, and overdue, increase in technical and technological education which will clearly be very costly. The great question mark is whether employers will be willing and able to match this development by in-plant craft apprenticeship schemes on an adequate scale to meet the unpredictable future demands of industry. There will be no lack of candidates for training; but its pace and extent will be set by the availability of instructors and teachers.
The productivity movement can be expected to make con- siderable progress under the spur of competitive prices set by other countries now beginning to sell in Hong Kong's existing overseas markets. Shorter working hours and pressure for improved wages will also stimulate greater interest in productivity. Generally, products are likely to become increasingly sophisticated as in- dustrialists and buyers find the right markets to which Hong Kong's particular expertise can best be adjusted. Improved design and packaging and increasing attention to international standards are likely to go hand in hand with these developments. The pace of change will continue to be set by the general state of world trade and international demand rather than by external or internal competition, changes in economic boundaries, international restric- tions, or internationally agreed preferences for developing countries. Nevertheless it will also continue to be of crucial importance for Hong Kong industry that, in general, liberal policies in world trade should be maintained throughout the seventies, and that Hong Kong itself should be seen to accept and practice these principles.