CONFIDENTIAL
Telephone: 265-5511
6/12
JCM Mason Esq ECGD
PC Box No 272 Aldermanbury House Aldermanbury London EC2P 3EL
Jean John,
BRITISH EMBASSY
COMMERCIAL DEPARTMENT
No. I Ichiban-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
HONG KONG MASS TRANSIT SCHEME
1.
10 May, 1973 PA
Goodfellay
Ravke
21/v
бескву
No Copy. Secretary
Mi
нкуб.
hist
15/5
Mr.
The Cotterill The Coggin
Mr Glaves
Glaves- Swith.
The Wilford fee,
The Aston, Hong King;
$ 14/5
You may be interested to know that MITI have again shown signs of being interested in collaboration over the Hong Kong underground system. When Sir Patrick Dean, who is now a Director of Taylor Woodrow Limited, and Hill, joint Deputy Chairman of the Taylor Woodrow group, called on Koyama, Director-General of the Economic Cooperation Department in the Trade and Development Bureau in MITI, on 8 May, Koyama said that Japanese companies were interested in participating in the Hong Kong scheme. He had heard that British companies were also anxious to take part, and asked whether Taylor Woodrow would be involved in the project. Hill said that this was possible, although nothing had yet been settled. Koyama then commented that massive sums were involved, and it might be better for the Japanese to collaborate with other countries. This might provide scope for cooperation with Taylor Woodrow. This was obviously a clar hint that MITI would still like to see collaboration between Japanese companies and the British consortium.
2. A somewhat different view was put to us recently by Gifford, of Jardine Fleming, to the effect that the British consortium, backed by Hutchinsons, might well decide to collaborate with other European contenders. He seemed to think that the Japanese were quite capable of going it on their own.
3. I had a word with Ian Grant at a party the other evening and asked him whether there had been any developments on this project. He was not very forthcoming. He made the rather obvious point that the extent to which the Japanese were allowed to participate would depend on the extent to which Hong Kong's judgement on the rival contenders was based on political as opposed to commercial criteria: he seemed to imply that on the basis of commercial criteria the Japanese would make the best offer. His strictly personal hope was that the Japanese would be kept out altogether.
14.
Every effort is made to ensure that the information given herein is accurate, but no legal responsibility is accepted for any errors or omissions
in that information and no responsibility is accepted in regard to the standing of any firms, companies or individuals mentioned.
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