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Q.
well.
Do you regard Jardine Matheson moving out as a setback? And how will you prevent others doing the same?
A. I think there are bound to be statements and events before now and from now on that will affect people's feelings one way or the other. I think you have to put it into context. There is still a great deal of investment taking place in HK. and that HK's trading performance this year is dramatically up on last year. They are still performing economically very
This is all part of the process of creating a framework of confidence.and I think it is having I don't mean just the Jardine thing but the whole Chinese approach with the need to encourage inward investment into not just HK but China and their special economic zones, is itself having a considerable educative effect on HK. I think the Chinese probably understand more clearly that which is necessary to be hospitable towards large multinational investors and that which is necessary to create a climate of confidence.many people. It is quite interesting the extent to which their own thinking seems to be moving in that direction. I'm no China expert, but the atmosphere in Peking a couple of weeks ago was perceptibly different from what it was when I was there 6 years ago.
Q.
You said no agreement, better than a bad agreement. cannot reach 1997 with no agreement?
We
A. Clearly we need to reach a conclusion that provides for what we want which is continuity and beyond that in 1997. So we are working as hard as we possibly can to get that. But equally we can't sustain negotiations on the basis that requires or visualises our accepting whatever goes into that agreement.
John Goulden: There is quite a good quote from the questions at the press conference on 20 April: Sir Geoffrey said ''there is no question of HMG commending to our Parliament or to HK an agreement that would not offer assured prospects of preserving
HK's way of life'.
Q.
Isn't there something unsatisfactory about your lack of representative institutions?
A.
That I think is why one has to be so careful to be doing as
much consultation as we are doing now. There are many unique
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