30 March 1992
Henry Keswick Esq Matheson & Co Ltd 3 Lombard Street LONDON EC3V 9AQ
MAY 044/2
т
DIEU-
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SWIA 2AH
Sir David Gillmore KCMG
The Permanent Under Secretary of State
bear Henry, Нешу,
I will not
Thank you for your letter of 10 March and your kind words about my talk to the UK-Japan 2000 Group. try to match you on references to Cinderella!
I very much take your central point. British investment abroad is a vital British asset. That is nowhere more true than in Hong Kong: you quote the figures in your letter. addition to being of benefit to Britain, this investment is of course a mark of British confidence in the future of Hong Kong, and therefore contributes in no small way to our wider objective of preserving prosperity and stability in Hong Kong, up to 1997 and beyond.
We have therefore worked hard with the Hong Kong Government to preserve Hong Kong as an attractive market for investment. I note what you say about Peking's non-statutory regulation after 1997. But as you know, Hong Kong will continue to have its own judicial system, and under the Joint Declaration and Basic Law the Common Law will continue to apply in Hong Kong post-1997. So regulation of the markets will be by the Special Administrative Region authorities, not by Peking.
We
In the same way, regulatory issues before 1997 are for the Hong Kong authorities, not the British Government. have been following closely your dialogue with the Hong Kong authorities on the secondary listing issue and the question of the takeover code. I am glad to hear that things seem to be moving in an encouraging direction. But this is not an
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