TNAG-1257-FCO40-1590-Third-countries-and-the-future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 120

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Mr. Silvio Raigorodsky, Vice-president of the Swiss based hotel management consultants CONSULAN invited me to lunch on 19 October.

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spends half his time here managing the Embajador Hotel and pur- sing through several other hotel/tourist complexes (Puerto Plata, La Talanquera) in which they have investment or project management. The other half is spent travelling between USA, Europe and points

He is in the Caribbean looking after CONSULAN's other interests. of Russian Jewish origin with Venezuelan citizenship, married to He has a a niece of President Carlos Andres Perez of Venezuela, troubled association with José de Venecia, President of what he believes is now the disintegrating Landoil Corporation of the Phi-

lippines.

2. A very knowledgeable man about the state of tourism in the Do- minican Republic and a valuable point of call for visiting repre- sentatives of British airlines (who have been sniffing at the pos- sibilities of some extra traffic in either direction).

3. I had not realised the significance of the strong Chinese pre- sence until this conversation with Mr. Raigorodsky. There are unusual (for Latin America) manifestations of Chinese activity because the Dominican Republic is one of the few which recogni ses Taiwan and generally speaking commerce and investment, cul- tural displays and films are mounted everywhere by Taiwanese. However, much more discreetly a flow of Hong Kong Chinese has been arriving for sometime assisted by Taiwanese. Allegedly President Balaguer in his last spell of office which ended in 1978 did a deal with a Hong Kong group which basically consisted of granting Dominican nationality and passports in exchange for substantial inflow of investment...

4. The principal success has been the rescue of the first modern luxury hotel ever built in the country El Embajador which had been fleeced of its assets and cash and left with massive over- drafts and unpaid development loans. The Government had been obliged to take it over but could not afford to revitalise and run it commercially. So the Hong Kongans bought it outright and after an unsuccessful attempt to run it themselves, brought in professional hotel operators CONSULAN. Alledgedly 3000 indi- vidual passports have been granted to Hong Kongans in this deal. At any given time between 40 and 50 of the rooms are occupied (on a proper hotel charges basis) by Hong Kogans here to consi- der the prospects of following suit and thus securing a bolt- hole after 1997.

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