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Shenzhen. Develoments there seemed a very good ides. There were no orublens about milk or tourless. The devlopment of light industry was also a sensible idas, but there might be technical problems about certificates of origin. (The Governor then explained the nature of
certiflustes of origin.)
Vehicles crossing the border
This would be
no problem. But if toolie was to develop greatly, we would need to know in advance in order to widen the road on our side. (Mr Zeng said in reply that he thought development would not be great in the near future, although there would be a significant increase in private car traffic if the area was opened to tourists.)
After dealing with these points the Governor described Hong Kong's plans for making new land available. He added that a key element in Hong Kong was confidence. This was very important in terms of investment. The Chinese Government had been helpful on this over the last few years.
On a container terminal Mr Zeng said that this was a question for the central authorities and the Ministry of Communications. The Governor could discuss it further in Peking. Guangdong only wished to develop small container traffic for transporting food and vegerebles etc. to Hong Kong. He added that they were however thinking of the possibility of building an oil pipeline from Hong Kong to the petro-chemical works at Whampoa. This was in order to make use of the deep water facilities in Hong Kong. Their thinking was still at a very early stage. The Governor said that there would be no difficulty if the pipeline went from the new port of Nantou. If it were to go from Hong Kong it might be possible to build a suitable terminal pier, but this would need very careful consideration by experts.
Immigration
8.
Finally the Governor said there was one further question he wished to raise which was not purely economic. This was the problem of too many people coming to, and staying in, Hong Kong. Immigration had in the past been helpful to the growth of Hong Kong. But it was like feeding a child. Food made the child grow; but too much too quickly made it sick. Recently a great many people had come to Hong Kong saying they were visiting relatives. Only 2% returned. The people concerned were, in effect, cheating the Chinese authorities. A second problem was the number of people leaving China illegally. Recently many more had come. This could not be welcome to the Chinese authorities. These problems affected both sides. They would have to be solved. This could be done by officials of both sides getting together. The subject could be discussed again on his return.
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