XN000022-1973-01-24 — Page 19

Wednesday, January 24, 1973

"Many Japanese tourists visit Hong Kong. About 400,000 came

last year, and I hope they enjoyed themselves. They were extremely welcome.

Over one million tourists visited Hong Kong last year, and I greatly

enjoyed receiving the millionth. By some strange co-incidence she was a remarkably

pretty girl. We are expecting many Japanese to come to the International

Arts Festival in Hong Kong in February and March at which some of the

most famous artists in the world of music and ballet and drama will be

performing, including your own New Japanese Philharmonic Orchestra. The

Hong Kong Tourist Office in Tokyo has all the details about this and

anything else in Hong Kong.

Large Stake

"Apart from these developments in trade and tourism Japanese

business has been taking an increasingly large stake in the economy

of Hong Kong. Japan is now second only to the United States as a source

of overseas industrial investment. In addition Japanese firme have recently

obtained several of the major government contracts. These have included

the extension of the runway to the airport, and a new desalting plant

to increase water supplies - the latter far the biggest plant of its

kind in the world. These two contracts alone were worth US$78 million,

and I am aware of considerable Japanese interest in the possibility of

constructing an underground railway, for which the figure, at 1971

prices, is expected to be over US$1,100 million.

/"We from