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INDUSTRY AND TRADE
of the total workforce in the manufacturing industry. The main sources of such investments are the United States, Japan, Britain, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The principal industries are electronics and textiles, although there were new investments in other fields including the light and medium engineering industries.
The Hong Kong/Japan Business Co-operation Committee continued to work closely with its counterpart in Japan in fostering friendship and understanding between the business communities of Hong Kong and Japan, and in the promotion of trade, industrial invest- ment and other economic co-operation. Working through their three respective working committees on Trade Development, Industrial Development and Communications, the committees organised two industrial investment study missions and one trade mission from Japan, as well as displays of Hong Kong products and trade and industrial investment semi- nars featuring prominent speakers from Hong Kong - in several cities in Japan.
The Hong Kong Committee and Japan Committee held their third joint meeting in May, in Hong Kong, to review the work of their working committees and to draw up plans for future activities.
Textiles and Clothing
The textiles and clothing industries are Hong Kong's largest, together employing about 41 per cent of the total industrial workforce and producing some 41 per cent by value of total domestic exports. The spinning and weaving sectors experienced adverse conditions in the second half of 1980, due to strong competition and the fluctuating price of raw cotton. Export earnings by the clothing sector improved over 1979, despite the restrictive terms of Hong Kong's current bilateral textiles agreements with the European Economic Community and the United States. Total domestic exports of textiles and clothing in 1980 were valued at $27,793 million, compared with $24,196 million in 1979.
The output of cotton yarn was 166 million kilograms in 1980, compared with 185 million kilograms in 1979. Production of man-made fibre yarn and cotton/man-made fibre blended yarn was 46 million kilograms in 1980, compared with 47 million kilograms in 1979; and production of woollen and worsted yarn was 4.7 million kilograms, compared with 4.3 million kilograms the previous year. Most of the yarn produced was used locally.
The weaving sector, with 28,784 looms, produced 748 million square metres of woven fabrics of various fibres and blends, compared with 843 million square metres in 1979. The bulk of the production - 87 per cent - was of cotton. Much of the fabric produced was exported in the piece, but local clothing manufacturers also used large quantities of locally woven and finished fabrics.
The knitting sector exported 12 million kilograms of knitted fabrics – of which 23 per cent was of man-made fibres or blended cotton/man-made fibres, and 76 per cent was of cotton - compared with 10 million kilograms in 1979. In addition, a large quantity of knitted fabric of all fibres was used by local clothing manufacturers.
The finishing sector of the industry provides sophisticated support facilities to the spin- ning, weaving and knitting sectors. It handles a large amount of textile fabrics for bleaching, dyeing, printing and finishing. The processes performed include yarn texturising, multi- colour roller and screen printing, transfer printing, pre-shrinking, permanent pressing and polymerising.
The manufacture of clothing is the largest sector of the industry, employing some 274,950 workers or about 31 per cent of the total industrial workforce. Domestic exports of clothing in 1980 were valued at $23,258 million, compared with $20,131 million in 1979.