ENG-1987 — Page 91

INDUSTRY AND TRADE

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$33,393 million in 1986. The industry comprises 1913 establishments employing 104 935 workers. Well known for its ready adaptability to fast-changing consumer requirements, it produces a wide range of sophisticated and high quality products and components, such as radios, cassette recorders, hi-fi systems, CD players, television sets, electronic watches and clocks, heart-beat monitors, electronic toys and games, wired and cordless telephones with built-in memories and automatic dialing functions, modems, PABX, cellular phones, calculators, photocopying equipment, microcomputers, disk drives, floppy disks, printers, switching power supplies, computer memory systems and add-on cards, read-write mag- netic heads, and computer-aided design and testing equipment. It also produces multi-layer printed circuit boards, liquid crystal displays, quartz crystals, and semi-conductor devices, including integrated circuit wafers.

Plastics

The plastics industry produces a large variety of products including toys and dolls, household products, travel goods and handbags, packaging products, plastic footwear and plastic flowers. It accounted for seven per cent of the total domestic exports and 10

per cent of the total industrial employment in 1987. Domestic exports of plastic products during the year were valued at $13,876 million, compared with $12,716 million in 1986. The industry has 5717 establishments and 85 836 workers. Hong Kong continues to be one of the world's leading suppliers of toys, which represented the bulk of the industry's output.

Watches and Clocks

Hong Kong is an important world exporter of watches and clocks. Domestic exports in 1987 were valued at $13,856 million compared with $11,667 million in 1986. The industry has 1 666 establishments employing 31 433 workers. Production includes both mechanical and electronic watches, clocks, watch cases, dials, metal watch bands, assembled watch movements and watch straps of various materials.

Electrical Appliances

The electrical appliances industry accounted for three per cent of the total domestic exports and three per cent of the total industrial employment in 1987. Domestic exports of electrical appliances during the year were valued at $5,606 million, an increase of 16 per cent over 1986. The industry has 771 establishments and employs around 29 482 workers. Hong Kong continues to be one of the world's leading suppliers of electro-mechanical and domestic fans, which represented some 20 per cent of the industry's exports.

Other Industries

Other important light industries produce metal products, jewellery, optical and photo- graphic goods and travel goods, handbags and similar articles.

The manufacture of machinery, machine tools and their parts provides support to other local industries and also contributes to Hong Kong's export trade. Of particular impor- tance are blow-moulding, extrusion, and injection moulding machines of up to 12 256-gram injection capacity for the plastics industry; power presses; lathes, shapers and drilling machines; polishing machines; printing presses; textile knitting and warping machines, and electroplating equipment.

Hong Kong's shipyards provide a competitive repair service and build a variety of vessels. Several large shipbuilding and repair yards on Tsing Yi Island provide services to the shipping industry and construct and service oil rigs.