be great financial advantages to Hong Kong in this since it could save a good deal of time in the building of the new airport, which would mean that the financial advantages from releasing the present site of the airport and the abolition of the height restriction in Kowloon would be realised much sooner.
Even although
As you would expect, Youde was non committal. GEC reckon that the chances of a negotiated contract are small they wish to pursue it. It seems to us that there are two preconditions for such a negotiated contract. First, the financial case for it will need to be very strong and even if it is sufficiently strong, the advantages of going to the UK rather than elsewhere (eg Japan) will themselves need to be strong. No doubt Schroders will be considering this as part of their financial consultancy and we will be making contact with them informally anyway, but it would be helpful if a means could be found of getting them to talk to us more formally (though not at the price of their also talking to the Japanese Government for example). GEC are beginning to talk to Lazards about the financial benefits of a negotiated contract and may come up with a paper on the subject themselves. I would very much welcome your views on all this.
I am copying this letter to Dick Clift FCO and Tom Muir here.
DRC DURIE
You
even
Jand du
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.