TNAG-0962-FCO40-1181-Possible-new-airport-for-Hong-Kong-1980 — Page 12

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RECENT INDICATIONS OF CHINESE INTEREST

9.

Since this matter was first put before the

Council there have been no further suggestions from

the Chinese on an official level about a replacement

airport being built in China. Members of the NCNA

and visiting officials from China have however shown

interest in plans for building the airport in Hong Kong

and have enquired about progress. Although the evidence

is not conclusive, such indications as we have suggest

that most Chinese officials dealing with Hong Kong

are sceptical about the idea of a replacement

airport in Shenzhen and expect, or indeed hope, that

the Chek Lap Kok project will go ahead.

10.

The most recent development is that a

German consortium, which is one of the seven groups

bidding for the airport master plan consultancy for

in early December Chek Lap Kok, advised the DCA that the CAAC had agreed

to join their consortium, to work on the Chek Lap Kok

project "as well as other similar projects", This

information was not received until after a selection

team had reduced the seven candidates to a short-list

of three, who were then invited to Hong Kong to give

an oral presentation in support of their written

proposals. The German consortium was not among the

three short-listed, and had been sc advised. Even

if the information that the CAAC proposed to join

them had been known beforehand it would, in view of

the unsatisfactory nature of their written proposal,

have been hard to have included the Germans in the

short-list.

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