Give possible ways or methods to raise working productivity and to advance technology in manufacturing. Then discuss with the class

4. Your parents have leather-shoe manufacturing industry in one of the biggest cities of Kazakhstan. But now they are facing some kinds of problem. Read the problems about shoe manufacturing and give possible solutions on the given items:

The industry is now in crisis.

Cheap imports from overseas have had a major impact on sales.

Many factories have already closed down.

There is widespread industrial unrest.

Reading 2

Read the text about manufacturing in GB and compare with your country. Speak on the level of biotechnology, food and drink, mechanical engineering in your country. What other manufacture types is your country popular with?

Make a report to your class on manufacturing in Kazakhstan. While making a report keep on the points into consideration: achievements and problems of Kazakhstan on medicine, ready-cooked meals, food and drink, machine-building.

MANUFACTURING IN GREAT BRITAIN

Focus on Britain. Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London. February, 2000.

About 250 British industrial companies each have an annual turnover of over $500 million. Sixteen are among the top 25 European companies in terms of profitability. Among the biggest British-owned companies are BP, ICI, Glaxo Wellcome, British Aerospace, BT and GEC. However, small firms with fewer than 100 staff provide over 50 per cent of the private sector workforce.

Biotechnology

The British biotechnology industry, which contains a third of Europe’s biotechnology firms (220 in all), is second in importance only to that of the United States. It employs over 10,000 people and achieves yearly sales of $700 million.

The most important sectors served by biotechnology include chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food, agriculture and medical diagnostic devices. For example, biotechnology has improved the specificity of pharmaceuticals through greater understanding of disease at the molecular level. British Biotech is developing an anti-cancer drug, Marimastat, which can be taken orally and is claimed to have few serious adverse side-effects. A second generation of vaccines based on recombinant DNA technology includes SmithKline Beecham’s Engerix-B vaccine against hepatitis. Agricultural products include infection-resistant crops; while biotechnology is also providing new tools for the selection and design of microbes and enzymes in food production.

Food and Drink

Britain has a comprehensive food and drink manufacturing industry. Frozen foods and chilled convenience foods are among the fastest- growing sectors of the food market in recent years. The range of ready-cooked meals has expanded rapidly, and companies have introduced many new low-fat and fat-fat items. There has been a large rise in sales of vegetarian foods, and genetically modified foods and drinks are gradually being brought onto the market.

The soft drinks industry, which had a turnover of $6,500 million in 1996, produces carbonated drinks, concentrates, fruit juices, and natural mineral and bottled waters. Scotch whisky is one of Britain’s top export earners. Scotland has 92 distillers. There are also 410 vineyards and 120 wineries in Britain, mostly in southern England, producing about 1.8 million litres of wine a year.

Mechanical Engineering

The mechanical engineering sector has about 29,000 firms employing some 560,000 people. Output includes machine-building (Britain is one of the world’s major producers of tractors); machine tools (purchased by the engineering, aerospace, automotive and metal goods industries); mechanical lifting and handling equipment; textile and printing machinery; and mining and tunneling equipment. Britain is also a major producer of industrial engines, pumps, valves and compressors, and of pneumatic and hydraulic equipment.

You have faced with different figures and data about manufacturing in Great Britain. Explain what they refer to and compare with Kazakhstan. Are they the same or different? Explain the correspondences or differences.

FOCUS ON SPEAKING