INDUSTRY AND TRADE
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and a newly-established heat treatment unit set up with technical and financial assistance from the United Nations Development Programme. This new unit is now handling mass enquiries as well as practical heat treatments.
During the year, the centre organised over 300 training programmes for more than 6,500 participants to upgrade professionalism in management, improve skills and introduce advanced technology to industry. It completed over 270 consultancy and technical assistance projects assisting client companies in solving technical and managerial problems. Advisory services were also offered to local and foreign companies applying for industrial land to establish new technology-oriented and capital-intensive production plants.
The centre also strengthened its technical information activities in 1980. In addition to publishing two quarterly bilingual bulletins on plastics and furniture technology, an on- line information retrieval service was launched. The first of its kind in Hong Kong, the service provides rapid access via the major search networks in the United States of America to the latest technical information on reports, patents and research results on a wide range of subjects. A series of demonstrations of the new facility was held for represen- tatives of the government, academic institutions and industry support organisations as well as for those in the commercial and industrial sectors.
To improve productivity in the furniture industry, the centre disseminated its report on communal facilities for the preparation of furniture materials and on the establishment of an integrated particleboard plant to industry, appropriate government departments and the Industrial Estates Corporation.
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There was an increased demand for environmental control services. In particular, the centre assisted a number of factories in the identification of pollution sources, and the design and implementation of effluent treatment systems and equipment. Under the spon- sorship of the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), a feasibility study was carried out on the treatment of effluents resulting from dyeing and finishing processes in Hong Kong. The centre organised three industrial exhibitions on machine tools, furniture and micro- processor technology, and sponsored five study missions during the year. The 1980 edition of the Directory of Hong Kong Industries, a salary report and industry data sheets were published.
In the Report of the Advisory Committee on Diversification published in December, 1979, it was proposed that the Productivity Centre should be the organisational focus of industrial support facilities, and that the centre should be charged with the responsibility of providing and co-ordinating activities involved in research and development, the facili- tation of technology transfer and the provision of a technical and technology information service.
Accordingly, detailed project proposals were submitted to the government during the year. When these services recommended by the Advisory Committee on Diversification are in operation, they should represent a coherent approach to effective technology transfer and technology development in Hong Kong.
As a member of the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), Hong Kong was represented at the 1980 meeting of the governing body, in Tokyo. The centre, on behalf of Hong Kong, hosted the 20th APO Workshop of National Productivity Organisations in January, 1980, and the Asian Productivity Congress in October, 1980- which commemorated the organi- sation's 20th anniversary.
The centre is a participating organisation of the TECHNONET Asia, which was incorporated as an independent legal entity in April, 1980. It is also a member of the Federation of International Documentation Sub-committee on Information for Industry.