ENG-1961 — Page 96

INDUSTRY AND TRADE

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training section of the Labour Department offers training in supervisory techniques free of charge to staff of industrial and commercial concerns and to civil servants. The four basic courses offered are the internationally recognized programme of 'Training Within Industry'. Firms are invited to nominate members of their staff for instruction as trainers at the supervisory training centre, and these then return to their own organizations to run courses themselves for supervisors. The section also offers courses for supervisors of those organizations which do not wish to employ trainers of their own. The scheme is well supported and to date several thousand persons have been trained in the four programmes either on the employers' premises or at the supervisory training centre of the-Labour Department.

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HEAVY INDUSTRY

Shipbuilding and Repairing is the oldest of Hong Kong's industries. Following naturally from its development as a trading port, the Colony has come to occupy the proud position of being one of the finest building and repair centres in the east. The largest vessel built in 1961 was of 6,500 tons deadweight with a length of 422 feet and capable of 14 knots. Marine diesel engines of up to 5,200 hp are also constructed.

At the other end of the scale, pleasure craft and utility vessels of all kinds, including ocean-going yachts, sloops, cruisers, speed boats of wood and fibre glass, tugs, yawls and steel lighters are regularly produced for local use and for export. The traditional Chinese junk, only slightly modified from the basic design in use for many centuries, has also found acceptance abroad as a com- fortable and stable pleasure craft.

Ship-breaking and Steel Rolling Mills. The economic factors which caused a contraction of the ship-breaking industry in 1960, namely an increase in the price of ships for breaking and a lessening Japanese demand for scrap, continued to have an effect in 1961. These factors were further compounded by a gradual reduction of beaching sites as a result of reclamation in the harbour area, a situation which will not improve until the new location for this industry, in Junk Bay, is fully developed. The first sites in that area are already under development.