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"The Advisory Committee on Diversification also made a number of perceptive recommendations designed to improve support and technical back-up services to industry. Action taken to implement these includes the establishment of a Standard and Calibration Laboratory, which will start operations this summer, and the Laboratory Accreditation Scheme, which is expected to accredit its first laboratories later this year. A more direct form of support has also been given, through the work of the Hong Kong Productivity Centre, to technical research and development work; the transfer of technology; and the dissemination of technical information. The Centre's micro-processor laboratory has developed a number of systems which are being used successfully in manufacturing

processes.

"In line with the recommendation of the Advisory Committee, research projects related to electronics manufacturing processes and computer development techniques are being carried out in the two universities and the Hong Kong Polytechnic. The Hong Kong Productivity Centra has also organised studies of the metal and light engineering industry and of the electronics industry. The results of all these studies are now being examined, along with the findings of a technology transfer study and other recommendations aimed at making the latest technology available to our manufacturers, so that they can branch out into the production of a wider range of high technology goods.

"The purpose of this work is two-fold. First, the availability of internationally recognised standards and testing facilities will improve the acceptability of our products worldwide. Second, it will enable Hong Kong's industrialists to enter the expanding marketa for more sophisticated consumer and industrial products of a high quality. To do this, and to maintain our edge in the face of increasingly stiff competition from other countries in the region, industrialists must be prepared to invest in these new technologies and master their application. Their past willingness to reinvest consistently in new and more modern plant and equipment has paid handsome dividends, as evidenced by our phenomenal growth rate over the past 30 years. Similar faith in the future is essential now because the health of our manufacturing industry tomorrow must necessarily depend on investments made today.

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