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The SCMP Business News carried an AP report from Washington which said HK's economic performance was expected to improve this year.
The SCMP Business News reported on May 30 that the top-level mission from Shenzhen had completed a week of talks with industrialists and planners in Britain's northeast which could lead to purchases of British equipment for China's offshore oil
programme.
The SCMP Business News reported on May 24 that the president of Japan Associated Finance Co., Mr. Imahara, had said some 50 Japanese companies were seeking joint venture arrangements with local industries to manufacture high technology products one of the biggest demonstrations of confidence in the future of HK in recent months by foreign investors.
The director of the General Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Jimmy McGregor, said according to the SCMP Business News of May 25 that HK's economy was as strong as ever it was; the political uncertainty over its future was the only destabilising factor.
The SCMP Business News on May 25 reported that an arbitration centre for settling financial disputes was to be set up shortly in Shenzhen to protect investors' interests.
The Principal Consultant of the HK Industrial Promotions Office in San Francisco, Mr. Robert Ashworth, told Barry Choi in San Francisco that 11 major American companies were seriously considering setting up branch manufacturing operations in HK.
Meeting Point has said China should do something concrete to dispel HK's worries about 1997; for a start Beijing could ensure that HK had a role to play in South China Sea oil exploration and the Bank of China could introduce low-interest loans to develop HK's technology and industries.
Businessman, Mr. William S.S. Wong, of Virture Shipping & Enterprises, said he had proposed a multi-million dollar investment plan to the Federated States of Micronesia in the western Pacific because of HK's uncertain political future.
A report in the Standard business pages on May 28 quoted Mr. Paul Walters of the US Consulate as saying a greater number of American firms preferred to invest in HK rather than in Singapore despite the air of uncertainty over the Colony's political future.
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The front-page lead story in the SCMP on May 30 said China Light and Power Company and its partner (Exxon Corporation) had decided to go ahead with a $5 billion option to expand existing generating facilities at the Castle Peak power station, news which triggered speculation that CLP may already have decided to reduce the extent of its participation in the proposed $32.5 billion nuclear power joint venture at Daya Bay or even to drop out altogether.
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