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James Smith-Laittan Esq British Trade Commission HONG KONG
5 June 1990
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Invest in
Britain Bureau
1516
Department of Trade and Industry
Kingsgate House 66-74 Victoria Street London SW1E 65W
Fax
071-215 8451
Direct line
071-215
Jean Jem James
ONAL
IBB PROMOTIONAL WORK IN HONG KONG
During my very short visit to Hong Kong last week we were only able to talk briefly about the ideas I have for future promotional work in Hong Kong and I agreed to let you have something in writing.
Until recently, for obvious reasons, IBB's promotional activities both in Hong Kong and Taiwan have been somewhat restricted and we have had to sit back and watch our EC colleagues in particular in Taiwan, and the Americans, Australians, and Canadians in HK, conduct major promotional exercises. As has been pointed out elsewhere, in the case of HK it has had more to do with 1997 than 1992 and the promotions have been more to attract capital and brain-power to their respective countries than to attract manufacturing investment although I am sure some companies will have established manufacturing facilities. However a HK company having manufacturing facilities in Australia for example will not help them vis a vis trading with the EC after 1 Jan 1993.
It is reasonable to assume that there are some HK companies who are manufacturing products for export to the EC who therefore must have been considering setting up in the EC before the end of 1992. Because the rules have prevented us from conducting our normal promotional activities such as seminars which helps us the potential of a market it has been impossible to determine exactly how many potential investors there might be but I would imagine that 30-40 would be a reasonable assumption. This is the figure we assessed in the case of Korea and Taiwan. (If your office has a more accurate assessment we would welcome it.)
Even on the basis of such relatively low figures IBB decided to conduct promotional events in Seoul and Taipei which have led as a direct result to three investments from Taiwan and two from Korea. The total investment and the number of jobs created have exceeded well over 100 times the expenditure IBB and related organisations