XN000022-1976-06-12 — Page 10

Saturday, June 12, 1976

4

"So Hong Kong's social progress, a better environment,

*

better housing, schools, hospitals and social welfare and more varied

leisure activities, these things are closely related to bettering our

economic performance and growth of the economy. This, in turn, can

only happen through more investment in productive facilities, both

in the private and the public sectors of the economy and through the

upgrading of our skills, both in management and labour. We are therefore

determined to achieve the administration, fiscal arrangements,

industrial relations and social cohesion, in short the climate in

our community that will make these things possible.

"This is a process which has been going on for a quarter of a

century and which has already transformed Seng Kong from little more

than a trans-shipment centre to a modern metropolis, with a national

income some fifteen or more times as large as in the early fifties.

Even during the recession, whose short wave struck us with such force from

mid-1974 to mid-1975, the process of underlying development and

investment was continusing and our businessmen were seeking out new

markets, new products and new activities.

"Now, given favourable developments in our main overseas markets,

our exports have recovered the ground u

- recusuion and are

poised for a further advance. From the bottom of the recession in the

early part of 1975 to the same period in 1976, our exports have grown

by over 50% in value terms and are now running at a higher level than

in the boom period in the latter part of 1973, that is to

say higher than ever before. In recent months, also, employment

in manufacturing industry has been growing at a rapid rate and

it is now almost a firth L-güer than a jour ago. As a result wages

have also been increasing, and in some industries wape rates have

/risen

Page 10Page 11