TNAG-0423-FCO40-469-Construction-of-an-underground-railway-system-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 140

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to Mr Grierson in his European role. The following could,

however, be made use of:-

TALKING POINTS

(a) The existing consortia have been having detailed discussions

(b)

(c)

(d)

with the Hong Kong Government. A final decision is likely

to be taken within the next month on whether to go for the

consortium approach or to split the whole project up

into a number of small contracts.

If we and the other

Europeans were now to modify the whole basis of our present

offers, the likely result would be to give the whole contract

to the Japanese or to lead the Hong Kong Government to

choose the multi-contract approach. Neither result would

suit us or the other European bidders.

We believe that one of the reasons why the Hong Kong

Government are doubtful about the consortium approach

is that they fear that by committing themselves to a

single powerful group, they will lose control of the

project and its cost. If now the European consortia come

together with a joint offer, the means of comparison will

be still further reduced and the advocates of multi-contracts

will be strengthened.

If, in the end, it transpires that the single consortium

approach would not work, we would not rule out the possi-

bility of co-operation. But the time for this is not yet.

We are not trying to shut out our European partners. But

the contract is important to us. The French have already

had some successes on their own in contracts of this kind,

/particularly

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