G. F. 323
機密
CONFIDENTIAL B
7
T.D.C., the H.K.T.A. and the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce meet regularly to discuss co-operative action at the working
level. In theory all this co-ordination should work very well but in practice its value is mainly limited to a polito exchange of views with little action, other than minor ad-hoc action at the working level, being taken to further exploit each other's publicity promotions in the wider interests of Hong Kong. This is mainly because Government, through its Information Servicos Department, has not allocated specific funds for overseas informa- tion work and is therefore prevented from providing on a regular basis the more general political and economic information support which is often needed if specific trade or travel promotions are to be used as catalysts for broadening the flow of Hong Kong informa- tion within Europe, at appropriate places and at appropriate times. As I travelled through Europe I became aware that a number of small but important gaps in our overall information effort existed because of this one fact alone. For example, adequate supporting Government literature was not being supplied at T.D. C. and H.K.T.A. promotions. Foreign language versions of "Hong Kong An Introduction" were not available and it was only being distributed in English. Distribution of the Hong Kong Annual Report was ridiculously curtailed and in some cases non-existent. In arcas where a government economic news brief service could be used as a supplement to other work it was unavailable. I deal with these points in more detail later and will be making specific recommendations for certain basic overseas information services to be operated by D.I.S. in support of the primary overscas information effort made by the T.D.C. and the H.K.T.A. These latter services are effectively and wisely directed to their specific targets within the arcas of travel and trade promotion and should continue as the main vehicles of our overseas publicity. But they must be more actively supported by Government in the interests of our overall image overscas. Since any increased publicity effort should not be indiscriminately scattered but should be aimed at further increasing Hong Kong's trading prospects by the addition of political/ commercial and economic policy information to the present pattern, co-ordination might best be effected in the future by means of a sub-com- mittco of the T.D. C. as Representatives of all interested parties are already
on the main council and share information. The working sub-committee on joint implementation should be kept as small as possible and membership might be re.tricted to the Txecutive Director of the T.D.C., the Executive Director of the H.K.T.A., the Director of Commerce and Industry and the Director of Information Services or their senior representatives. Other members could be co-opted for discussions of subjects of particular concern to their organisation. If this proposal is accepted the present larger O.P.R.C.C. could be either disbanded or maintained as a Standing Committee to meet on an ad-hoc basis on less frequent occasions when broader political or economic issues affecting overseas confidence in Hong Kong need to be discussed with all the agencies of overseas information at a general meeting under government chairmanship.
CONFIDENTIAL # #B
機密
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