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CONFIDENTIAL
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(c)
(a)
(e)
(f)
Carry forward the programme of Special Regulations to be prescribed under the Factories and Industrial Under- takings Ordinance, giving priority to those Regulations concerned with identified industrial hazards. (There are about 20 items in the pipe-line).
Review paid holiday entitlement with a view to improveme (At present there is no paid vacation leave in Hong Kong; legislation provides for 6 paid public holidays out of à total of 17. 3 of the 6 paid holidays are usually absorbed by the Chinese New Year. (Singapore workers are entitled to a week's paid vacation after 1 year in employment).
Aim at legislation to eliminate completely overtime in industry for young persons i.e. the 16 - 17 age group.
Make a special survey of employment of juveniles in the 12 13 age group in non-industrial employment to eliminate abuses.
(g) Revise completely so as to tidy up and clarify
(i) The Workmen's Compensation Ordinance, and
(ii) The Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance.
both of which have been the subject of extensive amendment over the years.
Conclusion
63. Hong Kong is a fairy tale story of rags to riches. A great export trade developed out of next to nothing, and work and housing created for millions of refugees. It seems invidious to do other than praise this. remarkable post-war achievement. But others have done well too - Taiwan, Singapore and Korea for example. (Korea's exports were up by 80% last year) Orderly government and the international division of labour, based in this case largely on wage differentials, seem to do the trick if only stability and the confidence of overseas investors can be maintained.
64. One might well ask, therefore, whether the current budgetary theology in Hong Kong is quite such an essential formula for success as is popularly supposed. Up to the early 1960s, the spartan rigidities of the budget policy were no doubt right. Have they been so right since? The policy of meeting capital expenditure wholly from the recurrent budget, for example, has meant a tight squeeze on normal recurrent items. Expenditure on education suffered badly in the 1960s; social welfare and the relief of poverty were almost non-existent. The standard of subsidised housing - single rooms with no kitchen is another legacy of that period. Would it not be possible in these more affluent days for Hong Kong to get away decisively from building one-roomed flats' for families? Are not Hong Kong people
20.
CONFIDENTTAL
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