CONFIDENTIAL
Textiles remain the mainstay of the economy, employing
2/5ths of the industrial workers and accounting for about
half the exports. Electronics, toy, plastics and wig
industries are growing rapidly. Although Hong Kong has
been quick to diversify her industries in response to
limitations on her textile exports, her capacity to
diversify is limited by the absence of natural resources,
the shortage of land, the preference for small family
firms rather than large units, and the long term
political uncertainty.
3. Hong Kong's principal export markets are as follows:
USA
33.5 per cent
42
UK
11.6 per cent
14
EEC
10.4 per cent
10
West
7.3 per cent
7
Germany
Canada 3 Australia 3
}
Japen
6.5 per cent
3
Singapore
4.1 per cent
The US market is by far the most important.
40 60 per cent
of Hong Kong's exports to the USA were textiles, which
accounted for 17 per cent of all US textile imports,
nearly as large a share as that of Japan.
? /150+
4.
Although Hong Kong imports rather more than she exports,
having an adverse trade balance of £116 million in 1969,
she has a favourable balance of trade with the United
Kingdom. Our exports to Hong Kong in 1969 were £88 million
whereas we imported £125 million, of which £76 million was
textiles and clothing, and £9 million footwear,
/Foreign
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Private notes are available after approval.