1.
FILE
COVY
CONFIDENTIAL
HONG KONG MASS TRANSIT RAILWAY PROJECT
136
RECEIVED IN
REGISTRY
RECORD OF A MEETING BETWEEN THE GOVERNOR OF HONG KONG AND REPRESENTATIVES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND UK CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES, HELD AT THE FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE ON THURSDAY 10 APRIL AT 3.00 P.M.
& M
17 APR 1975
་་
HKK 21/4
Sir Murray MacLehose Mr S T Kidd, Hong Kong
Commissioner
Mr B H Dinwiddy, FCO
Present
Mr D Lewis, GEC
Mr H Kline, GEC
Mr T Wyatt, Cos tain
Mr I Ross, Export Group
of Constructional
Industries
Mr J Hervey-Bathurst,
Lazards
Mr D Gemmill, Lazards Mr M Farry, Overseas
Finance and Projects Division, DOT
The industry representatives made the following main points:
(i) GEC sought an assurance that their previous
experience, of being pre-empted, would not
be repeated. They did not like the way in
which tendering was now split up into
sections.
(ii) The Costain representative said that the
British civil engineering industry would
like to be able to tender but that, given the
rules, there were better opportunities
elsewhere. Costains themselves might ye t
tender for the construction of the main
cross-harbour tunnel. However, some of the provisional Mass Transport Authority's proposed safeguards, e.g. 'on unforeseen circumstances', were very unattractive.
(iii)
GEC regretted that it was still not clear
what terms ECGD might offer for financing. Although ECGD might in practice match the
terms offered by other export financing
/agencies
CONFIDENTIAL