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wages of employees without affecting the income of employers; it could satisfy employees' expectation for increase in wages and
to promote the development of the overall economy. improve labour productivity will therefore be a challenging and indispensable issue in the future development of industry in Hong
Kong.
The improvement of labour productivity could be attained through different efforts, e.g. on the technical side, by means ennancing the degree of automation; increasing the application of technology-intensive production methods; speeding up technology transfers and application and reinforcing product research development. On the manpower side, vocational and on-the-job training could be enhanced to provide more opportunities for
The tertiary education and to improve the quality of workers. Government has made certain progress in these aspects but there is
still much room for improvement.
Now I would like to dwell on another aspect of improving Labour productivity, i.e. how management could improve labour relations. This aspect has aroused less public discussion but its significance cannot be overlooked. Although good labour relations alone might not increase labour productivity, yet without good labour relations, labour productivity definitely could not be improved, rather it would be reduced. If employers and employeer are not on good terms, even the presence of new machinery and technology would not be able to function as effectively as they should. The momentum for improving labour productivity must be initiated by the management side, but if this momentum is to be sustained, the support and involvement of employees is required
in this respect, harmonious labour relations within an enterprise will be a prerequisite.
On the whole, the number of labour disputes in Hong Kong had been relatively small. Nevertheless, there were several large scale labour disputes last year which drew a lot of concern from
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