IN
"
SOUTH
JUNE
CHINA
2nd
73
MORNING POST
China accord
will give HK
more security
By ENIC TOWNER
Improving Sino-British relations promise to give Hongkong a longer lease of life, a British MP said yesterday.
Mr Nicholas Ridley, referring to the expiry date on the New Territories lease, said: "The 1997 date is totally meaningless the Chinese themselves
are not now
working on that date."
The Tory MP added at a press conference at the end of a week-long visit to Hongkong: "Too"much notice is taken of this date.
“Planning for the next 24 years only is the wrong way of looking at things. I would feel great confidence at looking towards a longer future a future stretching into the next century."..
>
The MP for Cirencester and Tewkesbury, who is here with two Parliamentary colicagues. said the uplift in Sino-British relations and Hongkong's own relations with China had improved prospects for the Colony's long-term security.
"The effects of this longer lease of life are showing in the potential for greater investment and confidence in the Colony."
But a cautionary note on the improving accord between Britain and China came from a second MP in the party, Mr Michael Shaw, a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the
•Foreign Office Under- Secretary, Mr Anthony Royle.
On the reported Peking moves for а diplomatic presence in Hongkong, he said: "There is a general fear here of what the implications of this suggestion are.”
Mr Shaw admitted that talks
clearly what the Chinese “ requirements are.”
After a week's round of meetings with business leaders, legislators and administrators, the Parliamentary team had some morale-boosting judgments to offer on the Colony's economic health.
Mr Ridley said: “The prospects are extremely favourable. It is in a vary healthy state. I see great opportunities ahead in trade industry generally, particularly with Britain's entry into the EEC."
and
He described Hongkong's prospects for selling in Europe since Britain's admission to the EEC as "limitless."
He referred the extra benefits to the Colony of the lower BEC tarifis - particularly in relation to textiles, one of Hongkong's "mainstay" manufacturing in- dustries.
The MP played down concern about mounting restrictions, quotas and tariff barriers on textiles and promised more open attitudes to textile imports through pending tariff talks between Europe and the U.S.
、*,་
The British MP also referred to Hongkong's economic transition from a low-cost, low- to wage producer base increased overseas investment.
He labelled it “a sign that the Colony is economically," and added: growing up
"The development and sophistication of the economy means that financially, is no longer putting Hongkong,
all its eggs in one basket."
оп the Chinese bid for. On the drift of overseas
diplomatic represstud Hongkong were imminent, but Raddidika
"The British Government will have to take careful account of what the wishes of the Hongkong people and the Government here are. We shall also want to define much more
་
Compania “to other sites „in“ - Southeast Asia because of the rents-costs spiral, he said: "Hongkong's flexibility commercial centre, will help overcome this as some firms move outwellers will tnovą in. It is all part of the Colony's success story.”
Page 45Page 46