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4
(b)
can persuade LegCo to vote funding for the
continuation of PAA operations after June. There seems little likelihood that we can go ahead with the Central reclamation, but we can continue to extend the tender validity to the end of July.
No agreement on land, or acceptance of 50 hectares of land grants only. Theoretically it should be hard for the Chinese to argue against 50 hectares of new land each year since that is allowed for by the Joint Declaration with or without agreement. But in their present mood, they could argue that past practice has been to agree the whole land programme with them and not just the land in excess of 50 hectares. SPEL'S
assessment is that if more resources are directed towards modifications and exchanges of existing land leases, where Chinese agreement is not required, and if 50 hectares of normal new land is not challenged, we can supply the needs of the market to a reasonable
extent for two years or so. But there are two wild
cards in this. Black Point (46 hectares) has advance approval as a special requirement in the 1993/94 Land Disposal Programme. CT9 (60 hectares) has been approved as a special requirement for 1992/93 but since the grant will not be made before the end of March this year it will need to be approved again for 1993/94. If the Chinese chose, they could argue that these special requirements fill two years normal land disposal quotas. We would obviously have to try to persuade them that special requirements should not count towards the normal quota.
GF. 319
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