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INDUSTRY AND TRADE
(linking Tsuen Wan and Tsing Yi Island), due for completion in 1973, will accelerate the development of the Tsing Yi Island/Tsuen Wan/ Kwai Chung area. Few industrial sites in the industrial townships of Kwun Tong and San Po Kong remain undeveloped, but sites are now becoming available in the new industrial estate at Castle Peak which is expected to become the next centre of intensive industrial development. Plans are also in hand to expand the services required by industry elsewhere in the New Territories, notably at Sha Tin.
EXTERNAL TRADE
External trade in 1971 advanced to a record level due to substantial rises in both domestic exports and imports of 11 per cent and 15 per cent respectively. Summary trade statistics, including a breakdown by countries and commodities and comparisons with previous years, are contained in Appendices 3 to 9.
Imports were valued at $20,256 million. Domestic supplies of agricultural produce and fish are substantial but most of Hong Kong's food-stuffs have to be imported and these reached $3,474 million or 17 per cent of all imports. The main food imports were fruit and vegetables, live animals, rice and other cereal, fish and fish prep- arations, meat and meat preparations, and dairy products and eggs. Raw materials and semi-manufactured goods for industry in- cluded textile fibres, yarn and fabrics, base metals, plastic moulding materials, and paper and paperboard. Capital goods imported in- cluded machinery and transport equipment, while consumer goods and mineral fuels were also imported in large quantities.
The sources of imports are determined by proximity, prices, speed of delivery and traditional trade relationships. Japan continued to be the principal supplier in 1971, providing 24 per cent of all imports. Of the imports from Japan 33 per cent was textile yarn and fabrics; the rest consisted of electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, non-electrical machinery, photographic goods, watches, plastic ma- terials, iron and steel and miscellaneous manufactured articles. Imports from China, the second largest supplier, accounted for 16 per cent of imports from all sources and 48 per cent of all food imports. Other items imported from China included textile fabrics and made-up articles, non-metallic mineral manufacture, clothing, crude animal and vegetable materials, paper and paperboard and miscellaneous manufactured articles. Imports from the United States registered an increase of $218 million or nine per cent. The principal imports from this source were machinery, diamonds, textile fibres, yarn and fabrics, fruit, tobacco and tobacco manufactures,