Q:
A:
Q:
Government agreed.
We didn't force them to agree, it is
not our business to tell the Hong Kong Government that, because this is a Hong Kong Government project which they can now proceed with.
But with approval from China if the debt to be repaid exceeds 5 billion Hong Kong dollars before and after 1997?
Now
Yes but the Hong Kong Government, the Advisers to the Governor, within the Government service, have believed that that is an entirely prudent figure to put in there. We
didn't choose the figure naturally enough because the Hong Kong Government run Hong Kong and are responsible for its economy. But it does give the absolute certainty that all the sides wanted, to achieve a Memorandum of Understanding,
to give the clarity and the certainty of the Hong Kong Government to get on with this very important project. this project will do an enormous amount of good for Hong
Kong. If one looks to the north where you have the developments of Narita airport at Tokyo and the new. airport at Osaka and to the south the new airport at Changi in Singapore, and you look at Kai. Tak now, a new development of an airport in the Hong Kong area is so important to that part of the world, and now Hong Kong has got the certainty
for that and that is a very important step forward and an
enormous asset to Hong Kong.
When the Joint Declaration between Britain and China was
signed in 1984, when the former British Prime Minister,
Mrs Thatcher said it is a perfect agreeement between China
and the United Kingdom on Hong Kong's future. And now
several years later we have to sign another agreement,
don't you think such an agreement should have been
incorporated in the Joint Declaration which was signed in
1984 ?
A:
No. I don't think it could possibly have been included in the Joint Declaration in 1984 because at that stage it