TNAG-1607-FCO40-22122-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1987 — Page 66

Sir,

Translation

DRAFT SPEECH BY HON TAM YIU CHUNG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 14.1.1987

Adjournment Debate on "Industrial Development in Hong Kong"

In today's adjournment debate, my colleagues in this Council have already dwelt on many problems worthy of attention in

I would now like to the development of industry in Hong Kong. express some views on the importance of improving productivity to the development of industry in Hong Kong and on how labour productivity could be improved.

labour

It is popular belief that the foremost enemy of Hong Kong's industrial exports is the ever-growing trend of

But according to certain protectionism throughout the world. information, Hong Kong's export business is not only affected by protectionism; it depends more on the competitiveness of Hong Kong products and on local technological and manufacturing standards. In fact, to evaluate the success of Hong Kong's industrial exports must take into account the local ability of supply and not just the demands of overseas markets. In 1985, Hong Kong's exports to USA dropped by almost 7%. But during the same period, other Asian countries and regions like Taiwan, Japan and Singapore attained = growth of almost 10%. This is good evidence of the weakened competitiveness of our products.

Therefore, we should not focus

all our attention on protectionism. This is because we could still deal with protectionism by exploring new markets or diversifying our products. But if our products themselves are short of competitiveness, the problem would be more difficult to

solve.

In talking about the drop in competitiveness of our products, some employers would attribute the cause to the continual enhancement of labour benefits over recent years.