HC Deb 08 March 1979 vol 963 c793W
Sir Paul Bryan

asked the Secretary of State for Trade if he will give details of the contracts awarded by the Mass Transit Railway Corporation of Hong Kong to British companies and an estimate of the number of jobs they provide.

Mr. Meacher

The details of individual contracts are matters for the firms concerned, but I am informed that the Hong Kong mass transit authority has so far awarded the following contracts to British companies in regard to stage II of the development of the mass transit railway:

  1. (i) Rolling stock—Metro-Cammell £50 millions
  2. (ii) Power supply—GEC Rectifiers Ltd, £10 millions
  3. (iii) Signalling—Westinghouse £7.5 millions
  4. (iv) Radio communications—Cable and Wireless Ltd, £1.1 millions.
Decisions on a number of smaller contracts have yet to be made.

It is not practicable accurately to estimate the number of jobs directly or indirectly created or saved by the winning of these contracts but it is thought that they will provide employment over four years for up to 3,000 people in the railway and associated industries.