COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
was attending the Ascot meeting and was taking part in one or two helicopter competitions/ to say that he wished to be associated with the work and wanted to know what the planned programme was. Notwithstanding the fact that the prospective involvement of his son was greeted with less than wholehearted enthusiasm, Sir Lawrence said that he thought his son had made a valuable point by asking what programme we had in mind for future work.
3 In response I said that as a result of my various discussions in Hong Kong we now had a more clear idea of what was required from us. As I saw it, and I hoped that those present would correct any impressions which were wrong, CLP/PEPCO were looking to Britain to provide a capability to carry out a ten year power development programme in Hong Kong. Within that, in the light of the recent and expected growth rate in electricity demand in Hong Kong CLP/PEPCO wished to proceed as a matter of urgency with the proposed power station. The companies were therefore looking to the British Government to nominate its "chosen instruments" for the turbine and boiler work and to indicate, as a result of its own discussions with these companies, what price per Kw of installed capacity could be taken as a general indication of the price of the main items to be delivered. We should put forward such an indication on the understanding that (a) if the indicated figure seemed broadly acceptable to CLP/PEPCO more detailed discussions, in which the British Government would in some way be involved, would take place or (b) if the proposed figure was "out of court" CLP/PEPCO would go to international tender.
4
In further discussion the following points were made:
i
ן.
ii
the CLP/PEPCO interests agreed, after an almost interminable wrangle among themselves, that I should be sent (for the guidance of the CEGB as appropriate) an outline of the specification which CLP itself had been preparing. The CLP/PEPCO interests stressed that this was not to be taken as a definite specification but rather as "guidelines" or "guidance" which might assist those in Britain who were concerned with the preparation of a British bid;
it would be desirable for the British bid to indicate exactly what equipment was being provided and whether the price was being given f.o.b or c.i.f. Some of those present argued that Britain should indicate the individual prices of the turbine; boilers; pumps and feed system. During the discussion Sir Lawrence whispered to me that
"do not break it down like this if you don't want to: it is up to you to tell us how you are presenting your proposals";
11
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.