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Morning Post in support of my proposal pointed out that most of the employers and all factory workers here are Chinese. Consequently, it would be much to the advantage of the industry that if the engineers and technical staff were trained in Chinese language. Furthermore, it costs taxpayers a great deal of money in training an engineer or a medical doctor. Those who are trained in The Chinese University would certainly have less tendency to go abroad, thus, reduce the brain-drain which we are facing now.
With these remarks, Sir, I beg to second the Motion. (Applause).
MR. JAMES M. H. Wu:- Mr. Chairman, not so long ago, we have heard a "Tale of Two Cities", a new edition told by a visiting statesman of prominence from South East Asia. The tale, like its name, was not new, nor had it proffered any new concept or philosophy in government or administration to one with some knowledge of modern history in Asia. But the fact that it was delivered by such a distinguished personality who had acted upon all concept and philosophy with brilliant achievements acclaimed the world over, should command our attention in-so-far as the spectacular successes achieved in the island state of Singapore had to do with the problems of environmental hygiene, hawkers, housing, corruption and vocational education.
It would be time consuming and unnecessary to elaborate on our shortcomings in the above matters that are such important parts of our community life. Suffice it to say that these have been recognized by government and study tours made on its behalf and reports filed. The question to be asked now is that in the light of such findings, how are we going to shed the negative approach and pervasive pessimism, but instead to start providing a strong leadership for joint government and community effort to match the Singapore successes which, at least in one aspect, were attributed to have been based upon optimistic but realistic determination to succeed, and to continue the pressure with suitable variations until success is assured. The alternative is to dicker and procrastinate or even to discuss and pigeon-hole the many reports and recommendations which in its preparation had taken much public funds and time by officials as well as public-spirited citizens, except that the Singapore example is too similar, brilliant and near, and could easily help to inflate the pressure for drastic constitutional reforms which the great majority of us still deem undesirable at this moment.
(Mr. Peter P. K. NG arrived at this point).
In recent Legco debates, statements were made by Government concerning manpower and capital, the two factors in production that vitally concern us in an industrial society, particularly as we have not much land and certainly no natural resources to talk about. A review
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of these two factors would therefore be opportune at a time when Hongkong's life-line, industry is being threatened with mounting crises in the immediate horizon.
(1) Manpower Development
I am most concerned about Government's tardiness in acting upon recommendations on technical education and industrial training.
The present situation is that the acute shortage of technicians and trained manpower has not only driven up wages to a level endangering our competitiveness in overseas markets to which 90% of our manufactures go, but also severely prevents our development and expansion. Our wages now are second only to Japan in Asia, we are far less productive per capita as we lag behind in skilled manpower, production techniques and facilities, and organized capital. The disturbing fact is that, with perhaps the exception of our highly developed textile industry, we are certainly no better off in these aspects in other industries compared to our worthy competitors in South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, where wages are only 30 to 60% of ours. This explains why Hong Kong is becoming less attractive to foreign industrial investments, and that we are finding it increasingly difficult to market many of our products overseas. A close scrutiny would reveal how deceptive our export figures could be in portraying a rosy picture but concealing the vulnerable and precarious situation of our present industrial structure, brilliant it might have been in its past development. Our electronics industry, (a captive one owned largely by foreign concerns) our wig industry, our toy industry and for that matter our garment industry, all depend heavily on the nimble fingers and dexterity of our girls, but Korean and Taiwan girls have an equal match plus a numerical superiority. Also, these countries are at the same time rapidly developing more sophisticated industries including production of synthetic textile fibres and plastic resins which will give them extra competitive edge as against our having to import these vital supplies.
Thus our sole hope remains in a fast development and diversification of our industries as we have been able to do in the 1950s and 1960s. However the prevailing acute shortage in trained manpower clearly manifests our running out of steam in this direction, due to our inadequate provision for manpower development to cope with our industrialization progress so necessary to our economic and social stability. We have learned that Hong Kong was spending about HK$12 million per year in technical and industrial education and that, on a per-capita basis, Singapore was spending 8 times as much. I have found in a recent trip that the State of New South Wales in Australia, with a comparable 4 million population as Hong Kong, and a total annual revenue of HK$5,200 million, are spending annually a
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