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The association published a three-page advertisement in major Chinese-language papers promoting the sale of a housing scheme on Taipa in Macau by offering buyers and their families permanent residence in Portugual. The so-called Comprehensive Plan for Investment and Residence in Portugal was set up in accordance with a new investment law enacted in Portugual on June 18, 1982. For a minimum fee of $600 000, a participant is entitled to a housing flat in Taipa developed by Trafalgar Housing; right of abode in Portugual together with his family; and Portuguese naturalisation after six years' residence.
In January, an Argentine firm, the Vital Argentina Co, which is reportedly owned by a small group of Argentine businessmen and ethnic Chinese from that country, set up an office in HK. The director of the company said that for a minimum investment of US$10 000 in his company, one could obtain citizenship in Argentina.
SUMMARY
Since Mrs. Thatcher's visit to China last September there has been a flurry of activities to lure investors away from HK. A number of neighbouring countries including the Philippines, and Taiwan decreed measures aimed at attracting funds from HK by offering investors and their families permanent residence. Real estate agencies also advertised frequently in newspapers about the sale of property in 16 countries; a few agencies holding out the promise of citizenship in some South American countries for investment as little as US$10 000. There have already been some press reports saying that the number of applications for emigration to USA, Canada and Australia has gone up significantly since last September, although no figures have been quoted in these reports. In a report last December, the International Herald Tribune summed up the situation with the following description "like buzzards circling over wounded prey, businessmen and governemnt officials in parts of East Asia are scheming to capitalise on what some see as the eventual demise of HK as the region's business and banking centre."
11.5.83
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