G.F. 323 0003230
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Conclusions
94. A total of thirty working days spent visiting thirteen European centres in seven separate countries, studying the activities of four quite different organisations and discussing mutual problems with several hundred people, enabled me to form a broad general impression of Hong Kong's public relations and information problems within the E.E.C. This impression, based on careful study on the spot within the time available, has enabled me to lay down certain broad basic guidelines for the sensible and economic development of Hong Kong's information services overseas in the future. The recommendations in this report cover a wide field of subjects varying from important matters of policy concern such as the degree of Government involvement in overseas publicity and the need for more productive inter-service co-ordination in Hong Kong to comparatively trivial matters concerning current day-to-day operations of the existing services and small points in respect of media contacts which might be followed up with advantage by Government, the T.D. C. or the H.K.T.A. After such a brief and crowded investigation it would be unreasonable of me to present my recommendations in an inflexible and dogmatic manner and this I am not doing. My recommendations are designed to provide basic pointers for further debate in Hong Kong among the policy makers and the experts in the field of trade, travel and general information services overseas. Also my few comments on the operation of present day-to-day services should not be taken in any way as criticism of these services but rather as a series of subject suggestions which might be introduced into the regular reviews of the effectiveness of field activities which take place regularly in the head offices of the T.D.C. and the H.K.T.A. and within their regional offices overseas. I have already stated in this report that I formed a most favourable impression of the effectiveness of the overseas work of both the T.D.C. and the H.K.T.A. and I think there are many in Hong Kong who do not have a full understanding of the extent and the value of the services being carried out in Europe. However, I am convinced that due to a lack of a regular, active and fully integrated govern- ment general information element in this otherwise excellent pattern of overseas promotion (understandably due to Government Information Services's necessary pre-occupation with internal information priorities), that valuable opportunities are being lost to influence people of substance within the political and commercial policy areas of the countries I visited to a better understanding of, and sympathy with, Hong Kong's unique commercial and social problems. These people can best be influenced by seeing Hong Kong for themselves. It is for this reason that I have proposed an active government inward visitor programme from Europe to supplement the sensible visitor arrangements being made by the T.D.C. and the H.K.T.A. They can also be influenced by being exposed to more person-to-person contact with selected Hong Kong personalities, both official and unofficial who can talk with confidence about both our present and our future problems over a wide range of subjects. It is for this reason that I have suggested that outward visits from Hong Kong be increased and that government officials should participate more frequently in any such programme. An estimated figure to cover such visits has been included in Appendix I.
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