348/1
A E Donald Esq
CONFIDENOTAT
#KKB45/33-
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 51 2 0 OCT 1977
DESK MERCER
REGISTRY
INDEX
No
Political Adviser
Government Secretariat
HONG KONG
Reg
Pl.com SEAD
PA
Action Taken
Է По
banel
VISAS TO HONG KONG FOR VIETNAMESE
1.
З
173.Jaun
By RIR
2
TIN
Thympson
11/10
14 October 1977
N Daird
Rij
۹۱۰۰
8119120
Eve
CC MONN FEA
+ resubmit
Discussed with
See A
T1200
Humfrey (BEAD). Agreed NFA HUT HK + Pelanie
umont
Two current cases illustrate how we are increasingly going to run into difficulties: Dang Chau and Mrs Hoang Mai Huong, two officials who want to spend a month in Hong Kong on trade affairs connected with cotton buying, and five people, Mrs Vu Thi Kim Anh, Hrs Phan Thi Cuc, Tran Van Mich, Pham Van Thuy and Vuong Van Tinh wanting to go for a two month training course there with a Swiss firm, Geigy. The second group at least are from the Ministry of Light Industry, which is the Ministry with whom our present and potential exporters of large package projects have to deal (about £20 million of business may be involved).
2. You have in principle agreed to the expansion of the Vietnamese Trade Office by one, and I am holding this up my sleeve. But as the Vietnamese expand their exports and imports we shall be increasingly under pressure to give facilities of this kind and I think we must take a policy decision before long.
3. I know the Hong Kong point of view from our correspondence about the extra Trade Officer. But the picture is changing somewhat at this end. Vietnam is a full member of the UN and of its various bodies and agencies. We have had endless UN teams this year making reports and identifying projects. Countries other than the Communists are expanding their aid or technical assistance. The Vietnamese are putting a great effort into exports; and are dealing increasingly with the non-Communist Private Sector. They are very short of money this year because of the failures of the harvests; but the IBRD estimate is that their imports should more than double between 1976 and 1980 and their exports go up by 22 times over the same period. Vietnam is clearly going to come out into the world of international trade far sooner and far faster than did China. de ourselves will increasingly be taking students or industrial trainees.
4. It is no skin off my nose if a Swiss firm are unable to train Vietnamese in Hong Kong, though I dare say the Swiss will sooner or later have some- thing to say about it. But what happens if a British firm with a Hong Kong establishment, or a Hong Kong firm, wants to do the same thing?
CONFIDENTIAL
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