Miss M Lackey
- 5
Commercial Relations & Exports Dept
Department of Trade & Industry
techniques and they would like to look to us first to take them by the hand and bring them frward the next step in the industrial development process. Those who have mentioned this to me (and they include in particular the Chairman of the Chinese Manufacturers Association) are realistic enough to recognise that we are unlikely to teach them new techniques in industries where as a result they may come into immediate competition with us a particular illustration being the textile industry -but they still believe there are many of the light industries in which we could pass on our technical knowledge without fear of cutting our own economic throat. They do not ask that these technicians should be provided on a technical assistance basis with costs being paid by HMG, but mainly that they should be assisted to identify the fields where technical assistance of the kind which might be relevant to their needs might be available and then assisted to find the men, whom they would then engage on a contract basis. The help could be given either by Goverment (for example, using the ODA) or by industry but it would need to be co-ordinated in some way.
or both
2.This idea is at present in a particularly embryonic and vague form
and we shall need to pursue it further to get some specific ideas, but before starting to get people too excited I wanted to check with you and through you with whoever might be the most appropriate people within Industry whether it is a starter. If it is agreeable in general principle then perhaps the best approach would be for CBI to bestir themselves to have discussions with the CHA and others here. But it will have stem put behind it from London. It occurs to me also that there may be one or two individual firms with particularly large interests in this market and with a particular interest in seeing to it that Hong Kong buys their machinery, who might be dis- posed to make individual offers on this as well as the machinery for the Polytechnic, perhaps at the time of the BIE, if they had prepared themselves sufficiently in advance.
A fourth, and final, idea is that mentioned in John Towlson's
4 letter, namely that British Industry (he has specified GKN and
they are probably as good as any) might offer a technician for the Polytechnic. I wonder whether they got any further with Mr Bodanski?s proposal in John Towlson's letter, or whether this is once again a case where we shall have to give it a push from within Whitehall1. I should be interested to hear whether you have had any news since John's letter.
I apologise to you for raising so many different ideas in one letter and at such length, but they have been accumulating over the past
three somewhat/
No comments yet.
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