SECRET
9
RECENT INDICATIONS OF CHINESE INTEREST
9.
Since this matter was first put before the
Council there have been no further suggestions from
the Chinese on an official level about a replacement
airport being built in China. Members of the NCNA
and visiting officials from China have however shown
interest in plans for building the airport in Hong Kong
and have enquired about progress. Although the evidence
is not conclusive, such indications as we have suggest
that most Chinese officials dealing with Hong Kong
are sceptical about the idea of a replacement
airport in Shenzhen and expect, or indeed hope, that
the Chek Lap Kok project will go ahead.
10.
The most recent development is that a
German consortium, which is one of the seven groups
bidding for the airport master plan consultancy for
in early December Chek Lap Kok, advised the DCA that the CAAC had agreed
to join their consortium, to work on the Chek Lap Kok
project "as well as other similar projects", This
information was not received until after a selection
team had reduced the seven candidates to a short-list
of three, who were then invited to Hong Kong to give
an oral presentation in support of their written
proposals. The German consortium was not among the
three short-listed, and had been sc advised. Even
if the information that the CAAC proposed to join
them had been known beforehand it would, in view of
the unsatisfactory nature of their written proposal,
have been hard to have included the Germans in the
short-list.
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