TNAG-0841-FCO40-1050-Visit-of-Sir-Murray-MacLehose--Governor-of-Hong-Kong--to-Chi-1979 — Page 135

CONFIDENTIAL #2

9.

4

Since it was clear that the additional

demand from China could not be met within the

constraints of the present Scheme of Control, CLP

came to the conclusion that it would have to be

done through a new company formed especially to

provide supplies of electricity to China.

10.

Sir Lawrence Kadoorie's proposal

Sir Lawrence Kadoorie (Chairman of CLP)

raised the subject of supplies to China during a

meeting with Mr. Varley (UK Secretary of State for

Industry) on 23rd February 1979. At the meeting

he advanced the following arguments :

(a)

China's need for electricity was obvious

(Note 1), and they had made no secret of

the fact that the provision of further

generating facilities was a priority item

in their 'Four Modernisations' programme.

+

This

Note 1: CLP produced figures showing that the annual

consumption in Kwangtung Province was probably only 155 units per capita. compared with 2,122 units per capita in 1978 for CLP's consumers in Hong Kong and approximately 5,000 units per capita in Japan. CLP said that the Kwangtung Government was doing everything possible to attract industry to Po On district (the area between Shum Chun, the Hong Kong border and Canton). CLP considered it not unreasonable to expect that the consumption in Kwangtung Province would triple, but even this would bring the figure to only 450 units per capita. If this happaned, some 2,500 to 3,000 mw of new plant would have to be installed to meet the demand. If the consumption per capita rose to only half of the present CLP figure, some 8,500 mw would be required. Kwangtung's present installed capacity is about 2000 mw.

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