TNAG-0521-FCO40-616-Visit-of-Lord-Goronwy-Roberts--Parliamentary-Under-Secretary-1975 — Page 13

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30.

31.

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Are you satisfied with labour legislation in Hong Kong, especially application of ILO Conventions?

This year has seen great progress with your labour legislation e.g. the introduction of severance pay, the enactment of legislation to make anti-trade union discrimination an offence, the reduction of overtime for women and young persons, improvement in workmen's compensation., These are important advances. There are other improvements that can be made but I recognise that they cannot all be done at once. The improvement in the labour legislation is reflected in the growing number of International labour Conventions that have been applied. The figure is now 20 Conventions fully applied in Hong Kong and 10 applied with some modifications. This compares well with Hong Kong's neighbours in South East Asia - but obviously I would like to see a continued extension of the application of these Conventions. In particular, there may be room for improvement with regard to Maritime Conventions.

Have you met any TU representatives here?

Question 31 can only be answered in the light of Lord Goronwy-Roberts' programme.'

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FUTURE OF HONG KONG

32. What are the Labour Government's views on the future of

Hong Kong?

33.

What are your views on the termination of the New Territories Lease? Do you believe HMG should try to re-negotiate the

lease?

1997 (when the lease on Hong Kong's New Territories expires) is still a very long way ahead. No one can predict what the circumstances in Hong Kong will be at that time. I have every confidence in the continuing development of Hong Kong for the foreseeable future. We have no intention of abandoning Hong Kong.

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