TNAG-0419-FCO40-465-Registration-of-merchant-shipping-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 18

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G.F. 323

CONFIDENTIAL

Proposed Hong Kong Register of Shipping

The purpose of this paper is to review the situation subsequent to:-

(a) the meetings which the Director of Marine

attended in London;

(b) the meeting convened by the Director and attended by representatives of Hong Kong Shipowners on Friday 23rd March;

(c) the meeting between H.E. the Governor,

Mr. M. Heseltine, M.P., Minister of Aerospace & Shipping, Director of Marine, Deputy Economic Secretary, and representatives

of Shipowners on the same day; also

(d) a meeting chaired by H.E. the Governor

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attended by Mr. M. Heseltine and other governmental officials, on Saturday 24th March.

Consistent with the current position, it is now necessary to consider a future course of action, and such matters are dealt with at a later stage in the paper.

2.

Items agreed by United Kingdom

Hong Kong's proposals were finalised following the meeting Director of Marine held with the representatives of shipowners on 16th January, 1973. These are contained in a paper "Provisional Review of Legislation for Proposed Hong Kong Register including Background and Associated Notes", a copy of which is attached. All discussions associated with the meetings referred to at paragraph 1 above have centred around the proposals contained in that paper, but at this time only the following items have been agreed by the United Kingdom Government:-

(a) Subject to consultations taking place with the

U.K. Government, the Hong Kong Government could be authorised to issue its own Certificates of Competency at Second Mate and Second Engineer levels, to the national holders of certificates issued by traditional maritime countries, where these can be regarded as equivalent, noting that essentially "traditional maritime countries" implies E.E.C. countries and Norway.

(b)

CONFIDENTIAL