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6.
At this point the Minister said that the D.T.I. was discussing with E.E.C. countries the question of reciprocal acceptance of qualifications. Most countries insisted that masters of their ships should be of their own nationality. These negotiations could take up to one or two years.
But the D.T.I. view had been that Taiwan should not be included as a "traditional maritime country". However, in view of the comments by Hong Kong shipowners on the high standard of Taiwan certificates, the Minister added that he would arrange for an examination to be made of those standards.
Mr. T.Y. Choo said that for any substantial progress to be made, a greater delegation of responsibility had to be given to the Director of Marine to issue certificates of competency. He suggested that one solution might be for masters and senior officers with Taiwan certificates of competency to be examined by the Director of Marine. If the letter considered that candidates were up to D.T.I. standarus, he could then issue Hong Kong certificates of competency to them. He said that this could overcome the problem of the paucity of British officers by using experienced officers from other countries while still maintaining the high D.T.I. and Hong Kong standards.
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In conclusion, the Minister said he was grateful for the views of the Hong Kong shipowners. He thought that the D.T.I. would take a firm line on the meaning of "traditional maritime countries" but said that Mr. Chao's new proposal in paragraph 7 above merited further
consideration. He said the next step should be for the Hong Kong Government formally to comment on the Draft Consultative Document.
A.
Government House Hong Kong
28th March, 1973
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