13 JUL
'92
18:07 DTI OT2-2. 071 215 4701
From S. P. Day CMG British Senior Trade Commissioner
Terry, fumes's HKD
P.1/6
030
BRITISH TRADE COMMISSION
HONG KONG,
We s
spore
JC
Richard F Needham Esq MP
Minister for Trade
DTI
London
13/7
Copy: Mr Hum
Mr Morris
Mr Erners
My fell
Was tinto,
YOUR VISIT TO CHINA AND HONG KONG
8 June 1992
RECEIVED IN
11 JUN 1992
MINISTER TOR
TRADE'S OTTICE
Summary
1.
Lidah
dick 14/7
Recommendation that you should visit Hong Kong; that your arrival should coincide with the presence of a small group of key people from the private sector, and that the main aim should be to agree a strategy and precise targets for this post, the new HK Action Group and the local British Chamber of Commerce. Need to get the GECA package for Black Point sorted out first.
Detail
2. At our meeting at the end of May I undertook to let you have some thoughts once I had settled in.
3. I welcome the possibility of your visiting Hong Kong for an adequate period of time in late July and am pleased that you will be going to China first. This must be right in terms of Hong Kong business.
4. The priority, I suggest, is to establish a more precise definition of what we aim to achieve in Hong Kong and how; and in order to agree that we need a better understanding of our strengths and weaknesses, the strategies of our opponents and the needs of our customers from the UK private sector. We will produce a draft in the course of the month and will go over it with Mr Meadway when he comes here on 19 June.
5. The impact of my first two months on the Hong Kong scene was precisely summed up by the President's anecdote to the recent Sunday Times conference about the Japanese take-over of a British factory (attached). Some think the underlying UK position is good: others are pessimistic. Opinions and advice offered to me have varied greatly. We need a list of precise targets and an ordering of priorities. We commit a lot of good people and resources to Hong Kong..