7 July 1982]
THE INDUSTRY AND TRADE COMMITTEE
MR G T CHECKETTS, MR R T Fox, MR P J GODDARD and MR A G B YOUNG
[Mr Maxwell-Hyslop Contd.]
115. Would you regard that as a matter of transport costs or would you regard that as representing us not being in the forefront of design and value for money in consumer goods?
(Mr Checketts.) The things that they want to buy from us are largely in the capital goods sector. As to consumer goods, I am not prepared to get into that, whether anybody else would like to comment on it, I do not know?
(Mr Young.) When we look at the share of visible trade statistics we are not talking about invisibles such as banking, invest- ment by British companies. In the past 10 years there has been extra trade with Singapore and part of that trade has devel- oped because the British have a strong place in the market, we were among the first to make significant overseas investment in Singapore, some of those invisibles in fact replaced exports of visible goods and the first signa in many of these countries for a joint venture investment is in fact in consu- mable goods of one sort or another. This is the sort of area that goes first. It takes a long time to develop the design and competing skills which we have in the manufactured goods area. This point has to be taken into consideration. Also, of course, the relative strengths of the currency is another point so far as Singapore is concerned.
Mr McNally
116. We heard earlier Mr. Hill refer to these jumbo packages. Is that where the emphasis is, the really big contracts put together as a unit? If that is so how much does your association do to make sure the British firms are coming together in a co- ordinating way? Is it a weakness in Britain that we are not as good as some of our competitors in putting the package to- gether?
(Mr Checketts.) What priority do we put on the jumbo packages, I would say we put a proper priority. There is a very wide spread of trade and this is indicated in the Department's paper as to the trade which comes out of the UK into these territories. There is, of course, a publicity and spin-off advantage in winning a prestige project in one of these territories. That is a bonus over and above the financial terms of the con- tract. This is why we like to see a prestige project, for example, in Indonesia succeed- ing, it gives a very good reference to Britain and we can point to it and remark on it. It is a very important part of the total business there.
117. Co-ordinating?
[Continued
37
(Mr Checketts.) You are thinking of the chosen instrument policy within the PEP division of the DOT. My personal experi- ence is that that works as well as it can. You know the difficulties of getting competitive British firms to work together but there are instances of that happening voluntarily and instances of where one should lead and the other follow. I would think we are learning about this, you are comparing this with our competitors. I would think we are learning about this and responding fairly well to it.
Mr. Crowther
118. You say in your memorandum to us in regard to competition, you make a special reference to France and refer to "growing competition from France and government-industry co-operation." Could you enlarge on that, the ways in which this is seen to operate in the ASEAN market? I do assure you this Committee has had a lot of evidence over the last 2 years about French activities.
(Mr Checketts.) We put that in the paper because in the last 2 or 3 moths we have had very strong notice from our Malaysian and other customers that the French are coming back into this area economically. They do not need to tell us that more than once, that is enough, and we have been looking at it. Mr. Young will tell you about a specific example but I will give you my views on this. I am going to use West Africa as an example here. Mitterand's visit at the end of May to Africa was about re-establishing the relationships they had with their ex-colo- nies, not on the basis of colonialism but about Africa's problems and solutions. That was the philosophy behind the visit. The second point was the vastly increased aid from France, which has doubled in terms of GNP, coming from the Mitterand Govern- ment and this will be a significant factor in leading them to business. We would expect them to do this in South East Asia, they have already done it in Africa. If I may pick up a point, I forget which member made the point, about specific compromise between government and industry. If the French see in Africa a bridge to build or a hydro- station to build they will put it together rather better as a combined unit of govern- ment and industry for an exhibition of four or five days in the capital city and promote it. They are very good at that.
119. Are there any lessons which this country can learn from this?
No comments yet.
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