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Committee's approval for some limited relaxation of our existing guidelines on inward investment promotion in
Hong Kong. As Hong Kong is still a special case, however, we propose to table separate guidelines which will form an annex to the COP code applying worldwide.
Current practice and the changes proposed
D 4. The existing policy guidelines on inward investment
promotion in Hong Kong, which date back to 1985, are much
more restrictive than those in other markets. Because of
our special responsibilities under the Joint Declaration, it
was felt that high profile efforts by government-funded
agencies to attract inward investment to the UK could be
misunderstood in Peking and Hong Kong as an attempt to
exploit uncertainty about the future by drawing capital away
from the territory. Regional development agencies, who belong to the COP, have therefore been advised by the IBB to refrain from highly visible promotion activities such as press advertising and participation in industrial trade
fairs, exhibitions and seminars and to conduct activities in
a discreet way through targetted, private contacts with
individual firms. For similar reasons, we have also discouraged high profile visits by Cabinet Ministers which would be specifically linked to inward investment promotion (eg a proposed visit by the former Secretary of State for Wales in September 1989).
5. In practice, however, the existing policy guidelines have sometimes been ignored. While most of the
organisations that have an interest in attracting investment
to the UK have reluctantly accepted our policy of self
denial, from time to time a few high profile promotional
activities have nevertheless slipped through the net.
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