THE TIGERS CONTINUE TO CLIMB 

*****************************

Not that long ago I wrote about the Four Tigers: Hong Kong, Singapore, Tiawan and South Korea and how they are moving, economically, faster than even Japan. They not only have continued their meteoric climb but have now turned on the afterburners.

It certainly appears people in North America are worrying more about the fate of Hong Kong than many in that still-British colony. Currently, there is more construction underway there than at any time in Hong Kong's history. They are looking for even more skilled labor -- to come into their colony!

Secretary for Security Geoffrey Barnes said recently that "any person possessing a special skill, knowledge or experience of value to, and not readily available in Hong Kong, or who is in a position to make a substantial contribution to the economy, can enter for employment under Hong Kong's liberal and flexible immigration policy." Some Canadians have already moved there.

Another earlier column pointed out how Cathay Pacific Airlines, flying out of Hong Kong made US$20 million profit per plane compared to our Air Canada planes that could only make C$400,000 each. I must have picked out a slow year. Their profit for 1988 was up 33 percent, they were selected the world's "Best Airline" for 1987, so apparently they didn't scrimp on service while making that profit). Their performance wasn't that unusual, as 1988 was a profitable year for most Hong Kong companies. Recent profits have been running from increases of 157 percent down to a low of 10 percent. The average profit increase on this list was 46 percent.

Li Ka-shing, now a household name in Vancouver due to his purchase of the former 1986 Expo site for C$300 million has, through his companies Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa started to develop what could become China's Silicon Valley. He is developing, jointly with China's Shenzhen municpality, an industrial zone that will have a factory in production by 1991. Incidentally, two years ago you could hardly buy a color TV set in China. This year they will ship one million color units to Britain and the European Economic Community!

Meanwhile another Hong Kong company, Semi-Tech, has succeeded in a takeover bid for the U.S. company SSMC, the maker of Singer sewing machines. Construction company Sung Foo Kee along with Britain's Bovis Corp. is starting a US$170 million redevelopment scheme in Kawloon. Tan's Industrial Co. is building a new polyvinyl chloride (PVC) state-of-the-art plant in the Tai Po Industrial Estate, to be completed in June, 90 percent of the output earmarked for export. The plant will make Hong Kong competitive with Japan and Taiwan in PVC supply.

Even the Governor of Hong Kong Sir David Wilson is predicting throughput traffic in the Hong Kong harbor to increase 800 percent between 1986 and the year 2011.

The old order changeth.

Most North American's are not aware of what is happening. A recent US State Department agency report still classifies Hong Kong as a "middle-income developing country." The colony has a higher Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita than Britain!

At one time 73 percent of all manufactured goods came from Britain, years later 50 percent from the U.S. Britain is now down to under one percent and the U.S. 15 percent and falling.

"What about the 'sweat shops' in the Orient? Everybody appears shocked when I explain that the 'sweat shops' are now in North America. Our manufacturing equipment generally is much older. Most business equipment in the Orient is brand-new. It has to be, they have only been in this game for a couple of decades. Hence, they are all using the latest machinery. Their buildings are all new. They had clear fields to start with. They have not been held back with high investments in the status-quo, traditional thinking, rigid union rules, and industrial age institutions.. American investors though are getting the message. US$5.7 billion poured into Hong Kong in 1987 alone; that's ten percent of all U.S. investment in middleincome countries (If you want to view antiquity see the interior of the Canadian Post Office).

In Hong Kong people live longer and have one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world. Life expectancy is 76 -- 20 percent lower than the U.S. Unemployment dropped to a record low of 1.2 percent in the December-February quarter against 1.6 percent rate a year earlier. Total merchandise trade increased to US$49.60 billion, a 29 percent increase this over February 1988. About US$800 million was in jewelry alone.

They are out-producing, out-marketing and out-buying us. We better wake up! Any country, based on its population, should have an approximation of the percentage of world trade that is generated within its own borders. Based on that premise, the following would apply (including the great leaps in percentages during their "golden years"): NORMAL PEAK PEAK COUNTRY SHARE SHARE YEAR

UNITED KINGDOM 3/4% 25% 1900 UNITED STATES 16/18% 40% 1945 JAPAN 5% 30% 1992

POPULATIONS: THE FOUR TIGERS

SINGAPORE 2.6 MILLION HONG KONG 5.6 MILLION TAIWAN 20.0 MILLION SO. KOREA 42.6 MILLION

TOTAL 70.8 MILLION, OR 45% FEWER PEOPLE THAN IN JAPAN, ARE EQUAL IN 1989 EXPORT TRADE.

126.0 MILLION IN JAPAN 280.0 MILLION IN THE SOVIET UNION 1,087.0 MILLION IN CHINA

* * *

< previous | chapter index | next >
back to Main Chapter Listing
back to Home Page