C.S. 1€6
The Award of the Tender
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The award of the tender presents certain unusual problems. The two potential tenderers dominate the world market for commercial explosives; du Pont has already announced its intention to cease the manufacture of dynamite by the end of 1976, in order to accelerate the conversion of users to its safer water-gel product. The sale of land on Stonecutters Island is proposed to assist the conversion of users to safer products, but it is considered that any legislative pressure to reduce the use of conventional explosives, say, by tighter restrictions on movement, or by tighter control of imports, could only be introduced once the use of water-gel had gained general acceptance. The successful tenderer would, however, be in a strong position to secure the Hong Kong market, and, having achieved this, to control the sale price within the market, insofar as the price of imported products will allow. The award is, therefore, a matter of great importance to the two appliaants who have both requested that as much information should be provided as possible on the factors which would be considered in awarding the tender. It is clearly not appropriate to tell the companies the whole of Government's thinking on these matters; it would not, for instance, be appro- priate to inform them of the preference on security grounds for a British administered firm. It would, however, assist the award of the tender to decide a general weighting to be given to different aspects of the proposal, and to require as much information as possible from the companies under various heads. It is suggested that the main aspects to be considered with suggested weightings
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CONFIDENTIAL
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