TNAG-1154-FCO40-1434-Visits-by-Members-of-Parliament-(MPs)-to-Hong-Kong-1982 — Page 20

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

Mr Checketts) The effort put into South East Asi”

is, of course, patchy. It is not a universal thrust across

Britain. It is not and could not be. I think companies must

assess for themselves what their priorities are. There is no

way I can direct the chairman of a company to sell their

product in South East Asia. We can encourage them and advertise

the advantages of being there. I do not think it is unfair

to say that many do but the effort is patchy. It is that

patchiness we try to overcome in our provincial seminars around

Britain. We have two a year. The last one was in Aberdeen.

We had a successful promotional event in Aberdeen about Scuth

East Asia, attended by a large mumber of people in the area

and had case studies, SEATAG speakers and local speakers. It

is a good promotional event. We do that twice a year. The

next one is in London in February. You will be welcome to come

along and see what we do.

196. Nevertheless, you have described the results as

patchy and certainly if the results of these companies are as

patchy in Japanthen one could understand why our trade with

these companies has not progressed as quickly as it might

have done. Notwithstanding all the problems we have mentioned

earlier about numbers and everything else, if we are not

trying hard enough as companies

-

not the good ones because

obviously the good ones are - the average and the below average

British companies are unaware of markets and even if they

are aware of them, they are doing little about it. There

is a lot of business we are failing to rake in and a lot of

obs which are failing to be reated by lack of activity by

British businessmen.

16

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