TNAG-1873-FCO40-2661-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-China-1989 — Page 184

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

CE

126

CONFIDENTIAL #3

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11.

freed from the land can be absorbed into industry only if it is expanding its output and at the same time remains Given the availability of relatively labour intensive.

cheap labour and the need to provide additional

employment, automation or labour-saving devices which would lead to increased output per worker employed has had

a low priority both for manufacturers and officials in

Guangdong.

15.

(b) Export orientation versus import

substitution

Most officials and factory managers encountered in Guangdong during past visits were keen to achieve favourable foreign exchange balances, both at the macro (provincial, city or county) and the micro (firm) levels. Reflecting their concern about foreign exchange, they claimed that the development strategy of Guangdong placed more or less equal emphasis on export promotion (earning more foreign exchange) and import substitution (spending less foreign exchange), without acknowledging the fact that these two strategies were not necessarily compatible..

16.

It is probably as well that this mercantilist (23)

favoured by the Guangdong officials has been overtaken by developments in the province.

approach

Guangdong's economic development in the 1980s has been

(23) An approach which has as its central goal the

accumulation of gold or foreign exchange by exporting as much as possible and importing as little as possible.

CONFIDENTIAL**

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