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MR GOODLAD'S VISIT TO HONG KONG : 7-9 JANUARY 1994
BRIEF NO.
8
BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Background
1.
Mr Goodlad may meet some members of the Committee of the BCC at Mr Cornish's dinner or at other events (the Chairman is James Chiu of GEC; William Courtauld of Jardine Pacific is also active. The new Executive Secretary is Brigadier Hammerbeck).
2.
The Chamber has been invited to occupy 200 sq. m. (out of a total of 19,000) in the new Consulate General Building. Their moving in depends on 1) squaring their inclusion with HKG and the terms of the Private Treaty Grant (PTG) and 2) securing the agreement of the Chamber to pay rent and running costs and establishing what these costs will be. The Chamber would like to be granted a concessionary rent. We have not encouraged them to build up their hopes. But Brigadier Hammerbeck has expressed some reservations about whether coming in would be beneficial to the Chamber if Sino-British relations deteriorate.
3.
Discussions are currently taking place between
Departments on what should constitute the basis for charging the Chamber. In the meantime Legal Advisers have told us that before we can make firm plans to include the Chamber, Special Condition 13 of the PTG requires us to obtain the written approval of the Director of Building and Lands Department.
goodld.bcc BRIEFS johnw
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