My Hill
179.
Can I continue then? I am still on that same paragraph
on investment, because you have said something there which really needs
to be broadened out: "The appropriate level of technology for
individual countries is worthy of special consideration". Can you
become more outspoken on that?
Mr Young Yes. Certainly, there is no difficulty on that.
Many of these countries Indonesia and Thailand
wish to
create employment opportunities for large numbers of people. To do that,
you could use relatively simple machinery, some of which may even be
secondhand from the United Kingdom, It would not be economic within
the UK to use that same machinery and pay UK wage rates, so that there
could be an appropriate level of technology for the countries
concerned. Recently, on an overseas visit, I found a factory inThailand
using British equipment very nearly 50 years or more old, working
extremely satisfactorily and getting to the level of employment which
was required. It could not have been possible to operate that equipment
in the UK.
180.
in
This is probably already happening in some of our liquidation
sales. The majority of debenture sales are from the ASEAN countries and
it seems to me that we must probably assume that eventually/ASEAN
countries, apart from the more primitive, technology will move into
higher technology. They obviously will be reluctant to accept this but
do you think they will accept a higher technology when this simple
technology is so cost-effective?
(Mr Young) I think they would gradually accept the higher
technology but it is a question of timing on both sides. We have to
recognise that certain industries in this country are now much less
cost-effective here than they were. We must recognise that in the
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