TNAG-0841-FCO40-1050-Visit-of-Sir-Murray-MacLehose--Governor-of-Hong-Kong--to-Chi-1979 — Page 94

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Record of a meeting between His Excellency Sir M. Maclehose, Governor of Hong Kong, and His Excellency Mr Li Qiang, Minister of Foreign Trade of the People's Republic of China, held at the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Peking, on 27 March 1979 at 3 pm

Those present:

His Excellency the Governor Her Majesty's Ambassador Sir Yuet-keung Kan

Dr D.C. Wilson, Political

Adviser, Hong Kong Mr K. Sullivan

His Excellency Mr Li Qiang His Excellency Mr Jia Shi

Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade Mr Xi Yesheng, Director Asian

Department, Ministry of Foreign Trade

Mr Wang Ji, Deputy Director

Asian Department,

Ministry of Foreign Trade Mr Xu Dayou, Deputy Division

Director Frotocol Department, Ministry of Foreign Trade Mr Tan Xingju, Section Head, European Department,

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr Zhang Yaohuan, Deputy Section

Head, Protocol Department, Ministry of Foreign Trade Mr Sun Zhenyu, Desk Officer and

Interpreter, European

Department, Ministry of Foreign Trade

The current

1. After the usual courtesies, Mr Li said that China's economy had suffered great interference in its development and it was now necessary to make up for lost time. emphasis would be on building up the basic elements of the

There economy i.e. energy, transport and communications. would also be an emphasis on metallurgy - both steel and non-ferrous metals. The Chinese were ready for some degree of compensation trade especially in connection with non-ferrous metals and exploration of copper and titanium resources. There was a high content of titanium in China's iron-ore. Mr Li had discussed these matters with Mr Varley during his recent visit to China. Other areas of importance were the heavy machine tool industry and the basic petrochemical

China industry. The electronic industry was also important. wished to achieve the first stage of the build-up in these industries by 1985. Some of the technology for this programme would need to be imported from abroad and China would also look abroad for management skills for enterprises. Hong Kong was strong on this point and the Chinese had much to learn from Hong Kong. All forms of international trade practice would

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