XN000022-1995-04-06 — Page 2

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Transcript of the Governor

Following is the Governor's media session after visiting factories in Tsuen Wan:

Governor: Despite what some people suggest wrongly, manufacturing remains one of the key strengths of the Hong Kong economy, contributing about 12 per cent on the United Nations' formula to our overall economy. It is extremely important to our prosperity that we can continue to have a vibrant and profitable manufacturing sector. Today, I've been pleased to see two very different firms, both doing extremely well in competitive markets. First of all, ACL in the printed circuit boards field also manufacturing DISKExpress. Secondly, Central Textiles here in the spinning sector, one of the crucial parts of the textile industry, doing an extraordinary job. Like the rest of the industry a great deal of labour has been shredded over the years while we still manage to go on producing the same quantity of output. Both firms have shown very clearly what we need to do here in Hong Kong which is to ensure that we keep on going for higher technologies, more productive ways of manufacturing, applying as much knowledge and intelligence to the manufacturing process as possible. It is imperative that we do that if we are going to stay competitive in manufacturing which we all want to see happen. I've been very pleased to see two such excellent firms this afternoon. They both got different challenges and problems. I've been pleased to hear from the management about the particular difficulties and problems and opportunities which they face. But I've been extremely impressed by the quality of the management that I have managed to see and the quality of, of course, the workforce as well.

Question: The Chinese and British foreign ministers will meet in New York this month. You expect what kind of Hong Kong issues they will discuss?

Governor: They meet reasonably regularly. They have a dialogue on a whole range of issues of common interest. I'm sure that as ever they'll have a broad agenda, touching on international issues which are of common concern to both China and Britain and of course touching on Hong Kong as well.

Question: It is a bit earlier than we expected. I mean is it a signal of any change in the relationship?