CONFIDENTIAL
to Mr Grierson in his European role. The following could,
however, be made use of:-
TALKING POINTS
(a) The existing consortia have been having detailed discussions
(b)
(c)
(d)
with the Hong Kong Government. A final decision is likely
to be taken within the next month on whether to go for the
consortium approach or to split the whole project up
into a number of small contracts.
If we and the other
Europeans were now to modify the whole basis of our present
offers, the likely result would be to give the whole contract
to the Japanese or to lead the Hong Kong Government to
choose the multi-contract approach. Neither result would
suit us or the other European bidders.
We believe that one of the reasons why the Hong Kong
Government are doubtful about the consortium approach
is that they fear that by committing themselves to a
single powerful group, they will lose control of the
project and its cost. If now the European consortia come
together with a joint offer, the means of comparison will
be still further reduced and the advocates of multi-contracts
will be strengthened.
If, in the end, it transpires that the single consortium
approach would not work, we would not rule out the possi-
bility of co-operation. But the time for this is not yet.
We are not trying to shut out our European partners. But
the contract is important to us. The French have already
had some successes on their own in contracts of this kind,
/particularly
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