Mr. Moreton Moreton
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KAI TAK AIRPORT
You will recall our meeting with Mr. Dickinson of ECGD (record attached).
It was
2. I have held two meetings with the Board of Trade. At the first, with the co-operation of the Operations section of the Aviation Division, we arrived at a "guesstimate" of the British export content (in terms of goods, not services) which the project as a whole might throw up. At the second, with the co-operation of the Overseas Project Group of the Board of Trade, we considered the terms of a follow-up letter which you might send to ECGD.
3. A draft is attached in terms agreed with (and advised by) those sections of the Board of Trade who were consulted.
considered tactically sound at this stage to go for a loan tied specifically to export content and excluding local costs; the latter would, it was thought, lead to some resistance from ECGD (I got that impression too from our meeting with Mr. Dickinson)
and might unnecessarily complicate the issue; in any case, I do
not think the very short term credit available for any local cost element would appeal to Hong Kong. We might, however, have to consider the inclusion of local costs if our export content
figures prove to be greatly over-estimated. You will note also (paragraph 3) that we have indicated a term for the loan (seven or eight years after completion) considerably in excess of the five years maximum term indicated by Mr. Dickinson. This was done on the advice of the Overseas Project Group who say that the maximum term quoted by ECGD is not inflexible.
15 May, 1969
br. 5. Carter
(W. S. Carter)
Hong Kong Department
H.
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