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The Italians (We) will lead on the civil engineering,
sharing the work on a 75/25 percentage basis with us (the
British).
We (The British) will lead on the M and E, sharing
the work on a 60/40 percentage basis with the Italians (us).
An Anglo-Italian company will be registered in Hong Kong
and this company will enter into a single contract with the Mass
Transit Authority. The Structure and underlying support for
the company will be as outlined in Sir Douglas Clague's letter
to the Financial Secretary dated 20th July. The Hong Kong
company will in turn place contracts for the civil and M and E
sections of the work with the Italian and British companies.
If this counter-proposal is felt by the Steering Group
to offer overall the most favourable combination of factors, the
Anglo-Italian Group are ready to embark immediately upon an
evaluation of the Consultants' definitive specifications in order
to produce for you a firm price by, say, April 1974.
To achieve this target, part of the bid may have to
be based on our own design assumptions since the consultants'
flow of technical information, even on the programme envisaged
in your letter of 27th September to Sir Douglas Clague, may
not be sufficient to meet this time scale. We feel that this
plan of action is justified not only by the cost savings of
time, but also by the fact that it will bring into play at an early
stage that freedom of design which has been promised and which
we must have if we are to keep to your requirement for a fixed
price contract. The question of the costs of such an exercise
has already been discussed with you and we are assuming that
there would be reimbursement if a contract was not concluded
with the Anglo-Italian Group.
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