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Foreign investment in China fell in 1982: The Asian Wall Street Journal reported from Beijing that foreign-equity investment fell sharply in 1982 as a result of China's economic readjustment and investor wariness, but the trend might be reversed this year. Mr. Feng Tienshun, an adviser to the foreign investment bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade, said the number of joint ventures formed in 1982 was eight, compared with 20 in 1981 and the same number in 1980.
NZ trade official optimistic about Sino-British_talks: The SCMP Business News of 3 March reported that the Governor had apparently intimated to the visiting NZ Foreign Affairs and Overseas Trade Minister, Mr. Warren Cooper, that talks between London and Beijing on HK's future were progressing satisfactorily.
Letters: A letter from James Lam in the SCMP on 4 March said, as we no longer wanted to be exploited by the British or the big hongs, nor had we any stomach for communism, the only positive way he could see was to get organised and to strive for independence while choosing to remain within the Commonwealth. This was the only way to guarantee our freedom, lifestyle and future. It would be pointless leaving our destiny in the hands of the British Government or China. Independence would make people really belong to and work out a truly democratic system that everyone could live with. He imagined the main opposition would be from China in case of independence and Mr. Lam wondered how many people would be prepared to fight for the land and way of life we had enjoyed so far. "Betrayed Chinese" wrote to the Standard on 2 March that the Taiwan Government was making "a lot of noise" over the Sino-British talks, saying they would not recognise any agreement arising from them. He urged the KMT to keep quiet and preserve what little was left of their dignity: it was because of their wholesale and utter disgrace that there was a communist regime in Beijing.
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OTHER ITMES:
HKGCC to visit China: A delegation of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce will visit China from Wednesday to promote commercial and industrial relations. The 16-member team, headed by the chairman of the Chamber's China Committee, Mr. H. Luehrs, vice-chairman, Mr. Anthony Russell, and assistant deputy director, Miss Cecilia Fung, would hold talks with Chinese officials to explore the opportunities for joint ventures in oil exploration, investment and production of consumer goods. Another HKGCC team headed by Mr. Jack Tang left for London on a trade mission.
Leader in the Ming Pao: In a leader on 1 March, Ming Pao said in the face of uncertainty over HK's future, confidence was eroding and it would need something more than an assurance or verbal encouragement to maintain HK's prosperity and stability. What was needed were actions. One of the concrete ways of doing this was to give financial aid to manufacturers. It praised the 13 Beijing-funded banks for extending loans to small industry, saying that they had shown the attitude of "we are in the same boat". The leader said that problems facing HK's manufacturers were due more to political uncertainty than to shortage of funds.
CONFIDENTIAL