TNAG-0306-FCO40-342-Equipment-for-technical-institutes-in-Hong-Kong-provision-of-1971 — Page 106

of facilities. Government has also made a welcome announcement that a Deputy Director of Education would be appointed to take charge of technical education. We believe that to meet the urgent demand, immediate steps should be taken to implement recommendations for the setting up of the four additional technical institutes, as well as more pre- vocational schools to provide for the many primary school- leavers not pursuing full secondary education. It is important that youngsters during their maturing years be properly oriented and prepared for a useful career instead of roaming the streets at the mercy of undesirable elements before reaching the employable age. The CMA pledged HK$1 million in 1968 to build such a school. Proposals Nave been made by the garments and construction industries

to contribute to practical training schemes through the ITAC. We trust that Government will deal quickly with these proposals and with all the recommendations from the ITAC itself. The ITAC is doing a very valuable job and it must be given the resources to continue its work with a degree of urgency.

We believe that more and better progress can be made if more administration and liaison staff can be assigned to work for the ITAC. It is also clear that Hong Kong will have to train most of its technical teachers, and this should engage the attention of our Technical College, the proposed Polytechnic and the Universities.

2. Technology

With rapidly increasing wages and shortening work-hours, new labour-saving methods and techniques must be introduced to raise productivity, to improve quality standards, and to develop more products of sophisticated design and appeal so as to capture new markets for such goods with more added value. For with our wages now 50% to 100% higher than some developing countries in this region, we find great difficulty in competing in the simpler product lines they now offer.

The introduction and propagation of technology and methods can take many forms but the Hong Kong Productivity Centre has in a short length of time proven its potential for this task and it is to be hoped that it will be given the resources to expand its activities to meet this pressing need.

3. Industrial Financing

Advancing technology, in increasing output alone, would demand more capital for materials and goods in process, not to say the cost of acquiring the knowledge and the plant and equipment to do the job. The situation is further aggravated by the fact that technology also imposes a commitment of time and money that tends to be made ever more inflexible in the course of planning and the actual manufacturing of a particular product on a mass production basis to obtain economies of scale. All these will have to involve the infusion of extra capital on an unprecedented scale. Our highly developed textile industry has demonstrated this trend of development, but if we are to talk of

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