REVIEW
13
sake of the novel advantages seen in increasingly inexpensive drip- dry and non-crease clothing. But later in the decade some restraints were also placed on certain items of non-cotton textiles in particular markets. 1971, however, witnessed a major retreat into protection- ism by the affluent consumer society, when Hong Kong, together with other major Asian suppliers, was required to restrain its exports of all man-made fibre and wool textiles to its major market, the United States. The possibility of this example spreading to other markets and other products cannot be discounted and the danger of creeping protectionism remains a continuing, if potential, threat to Hong Kong's future prosperity.
The formation and development of new manufacturing industries has contributed largely to the very considerable increase in the numbers both of registered factories and of people employed in manufacturing. In 1961 Hong Kong had 5,987 registered and re- corded manufacturing establishments, which employed 248,888 people. By 1971, these figures had increased to 18,612 and 564,370. In the manufacturing sector alone, therefore, the demand for labour has more than doubled.
Such rapid expansion inevitably brought about shortage, and during the past few years this demand for both skilled and semi- skilled labour has consistently exceeded the supply. The qualities of flexibility and mobility of the local labour force, which have stood Hong Kong in such good stead in the past, can no longer be depended on to meet the ever-increasing and diversifying demands of industry for specialised labour of every kind. A systematic approach to the problems of industrial training and technical education is required if a serious shortage of labour,land especially skilled labour, is not to act as a brake on the continued expansion of the economy.
In 1965 the Industrial Training Advisory Committee was set up to examine these needs. The main committee functioned through a network of subsidiary committees dealing with such matters as apprenticeship, vocational training and technical institutes, and its final report in March 1971 made far-reaching recommendations in the whole field of industrial training. A preliminary recommenda- tion of the committee resulted in the first Technical Institute being set up in 1969 to train craftsmen, apprentices and technicians. Further institutes of this type are to be built to supplement the facilities provided by the secondary modern and pre-vocational schools already administered by the Education Department, which will themselves be expanded.