25
Wednesday, November 1, 1972
"This unsatisfactory situation should not be allowed to continue.
The Government must be able to find means to check such inefficient utilisation
of public money."
As regards economic development, Dr. Chung shared the Governor's
view that "our prospects for social progress depend on our ability to maintain
a high rate of economic expansion."
He described foreign trade as Hong Kong's "life-blood" and stressed
that ways and means must be found to keep the world markets open to local
goods.
He said "we must impress upon the British Ministers who handle our
foreign affairs that as far as trade relations are concerned, first, they
should use their good offices to ensure that Hong Kong be treated fairly and
justly by our trading partners, and, secondly, the U.K. Government should not
set any bad examples of its own for other governments to follow to the detriment
of Hong Kong's economic progress,"
Dr. Chung said we are facing a rapid wage spiral and accelerating
cost inflation in industry. For export-oriented factories, there are only
three alternatives.
"One is to bow out of competition. The second is to offset the rise
of labour costs through improvement of labour. The third is to avoid direct
competition with low cost products by trading up the quality and technology
ladder".
/Both the