65. In the view of Her Majesty's Government and the Hong Kong
Government, the Chinese side's proposals would not deal
adequately with the problems associated with corporate voting and very small constituencies. Some of their specific proposals
also failed to meet the requirements for functional
constituencies. Kai Fong Associations are not economic or
professional groups of importance in the community.
There are
only some 50 such associations in Hong Kong. The proposal for a
Chinese Enterprises Association constituency is inconsistent
with Hong Kong's general approach of treating all investors and enterprises in the same way regardless of national origin. It
could be divisive to create constituencies on the basis of
"national" interests rather than economic and professional
groups. Many Chinese enterprises are already registered
electors in other functional constituencies. The Chinese
proposal for an Insurance Functional Constituency could only be
formed by splitting the existing Financial Services constituency
which was already very small. Given the small number of
authorised insurers in Hong Kong (229) the insurance
constituency would by itself be tiny.
66. The British side put forward revised proposals on the nine
new functional constituencies in round nine. These took account
of the Chinese proposal that functional constituencies should
all be based on organisations, and also built on six of the nine specific Chinese proposals. In subsequent Rounds, the British
side offered a number of further revisions to their list of
Functional Constituencies, in a major effort to bridge the gap. After these amendments, the British side's nine proposed
constituencies were:
-
-
Textiles and Garment
Wholesale/Retail and Import/Export
Manufacturing
Agriculture and Fisheries
statememt26.8/BRIEFS/NJH
32