CONFIDENTIAL
COMMERCIAL INFORMATION
10.
Apart from the dissemination since February 1979 of bi-monthly COI news bulletins on trade with China no initiative work in the commercial publicity field has been undertaken by the British Trade Commission. The responsive workload has too been small and has been confined to handling two or three reports a month from local editors for material to form the basis of articles on potential British exports or services to China.
11.
A new opening for direct commercial publicity in China has been created by the demands, particularly in the southern-most (Guangdon) province, for technical and industrial magazines published in Hong Kong. At least five such magazines produced in either bilingual or Chinese texts, are now circulating freely in China and two others are to be launched in the near future. We are assured by the BTC Information Officer, himself a former Hong Kong journalist, that the editions of the above magazines will welcome COI commissioned industrial feature articles although the chances of them being carried would be greatly improved if the texts supplied had been translated into Chinese. Certain of our competitors (eg the Australian and US official Trade Representatives) are clearly supplying editors with translated texts and it is difficult to see how we can avoid doing so if we are to make a determined commercial publicity effort through this newly opened avenue.
12.
The BTC Information Section has only one full time LE III translator/clerk and she is fully occupied with general and commercial publicity tasks in Hong Kong. Extra translating capacity will have to be provided for a China commercial publicity programme on the lines indicated by either the recruitment of an extra LE III translator or by engaging outside translation services. Initially at least we favour the latter course since:
(a)
(b)
we estimate that it will be cheaper so long as the total volume of translation work does not exceed about 90,000 words per annum. Beyond that point we think it would become progressively cheaper to engage an LE III translator.
we are informed that the system of simplified Chinese characters currently in use in China calls for a particular translating expertise which may not be readily available amongst candidates for an LE translator position and which could take some time for any recruit to cultivate.
ACCOMMODATION
13. It will be necessary to take over additional space on the 9th floor of Gammon House to accommodate the expanded CTU and this can be done in April next year when the sub-lease of offices to Determined Products Ltd will expire. Menawhile the Confidential Registry can be set up in Room 30, which we think can be its permanent location unless the volume of material held grows to the point at which an exchange with Room 29 is required (which seems unlikely). Since only Confidential material, held in Security cabinets, will be kept in
/room 30
CONFIDENTIAL