2
HK/Jagan file
K. Mr Paul's
Mo1216
Mr Stone
CONFIDENTIAL
HIC B
RECEIVE ....i
02012
From: R JT McLaren
R1 =1/2
09 APR 1990
Date:
DESK
INDEX
ER
Cc:
20 February 1990
Mr Warren, FED
Miss Marsden
HKD
HONG KONG : JAPANESE INTEREST
1.
There is one point that arose at a lunch with Mr Satoh (new Director General of the Information Analysis, Research and Planning Bureau in the Japanese Foreign Ministry) some ten days ago which I should have reported earlier. Mr Satoh was Consul General in Hong Kong before taking up his present post and we spent some time discussing developments there and what Japan could do to help. Mr Satoh said that on his recommendation the Japanese Government had been:
encouraging Japanese businessmen to continue to invest in Hong Kong and, where appropriate, to establish regional headquarters there; and
taking suitable opportunities to explain to the Chinese the importance of Japan's economic stake in Hong Kong and the consequent Japanese interest in the territory's continued stability and prosperity.
2.
Mr Satoh said that since returning to Tokyo he had thought of another way in which the Japanese might help. This was by persuading Japanese companies to support major infrastructure projects in the regions of South China adjacent to Hong Kong. Such projects, particularly in the field of communications (roads, bridges, etc), could make Hong Kong even more important to the economy of South China as a whole than it had already become. I said that I could certainly see no objection to this; it could be quite useful.
3. Less positively, Mr Satoh said that it was no use our pressing the Japanese to give passports to Hong Kong people to supplement what we were doing. This was not an area where the Japanese Government had any flexibility. I said that we realised that it would be very difficult for the Japanese to help over right of abode, but we could hardly have avoided putting the question given the extent of Japanese interests in Hong Kong and the number of Hong Kong people who were employed by Japanese firms.
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RJT McLaren
MC9AAP
CONFIDENTIAL