TNAG-1165-FCO40-1445-Visits-by-officials-from-China-to-Hong-Kong-1982 — Page 175

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CONFIDENTIAL

Record of a call on HE the Governor

by the Mayor of Guangzhou, Mr. LIANG Lingguang

14.30 28 December 1981

(58)

Present:

Mr. LIANG Lingguang Mayor of Guangzhou

Mr. OU Chu

Deputy Mayor of Guangzhou

Mr. LIANG Shangli

Deputy Mayor of Guangzhou

Madam ZHU Hanzhang Deputy Chief Guangzhou

Municipal Foreign Affairs Bureau and wife of Mayor LIANG Lingguang

Mr. LU Jian

Interpreter

Mr. YE Feng

"

(1

Deputy Director, NCNA Hong Kong

Mr. TAN Gan

Staff Member, NCNA Hong Kong

Mr. LI Ruohe

Interpreter, NCNA Hong Kong

HE The Governor

Mr. R.J.T. McLaren Political Adviser

Mr. James So Private Secretary

Mr. R.P. Margolis Deputy Political Adviser

Mr. Y.P. Cheng Interpreter

HE welcomed Mr. LIANG and his party and recalled his own visit to Guangzhou in 1979 on his way to Peking. Vice Premier DENG Xiaoping had said in Peking that Hong Kong people should invest in Guangdong province and that Hong Kong and Guangdong could be of great assistance to each other in their economic development. As a result of this visit, a committee had been formed in Hong Kong headed by Sir Y.K. Kan to encourage economic cooperation with Guangdong. Sir Y.K. Kan had led a delegation to Guangdong in 1980 to investigate opportunities for the development of such contacts. Since then there had been many other visits both by Government officials and business- men in both directions. During this time, investment by Hong Kong businessmen in Guangdong province had grown. They were not only investing in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone but also in Guangzhou city itself. There was equally large scale investment by agencies of the Chinese People's Government in Hong Kong: economic cooperation of the best kind was thus growing up. HE said that people should begin to think not so much of Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau individually but of the Pearl river estuary industrial area.

2.

Mr. LIANG Lingguang thanked the Governor for his welcome and for the arrangements which had been made for him and his party during their stop-over in Hong Kong. As the Governor knew, he had been on an official visit to the United States where he had signed a Town Twinning Agreement with Los Angeles. Mr. LIANG said he had last

CONFIDENTIAL