TNAG-1519-FCO40-2080-Employment-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 160

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7 August 1985

JCC Chan Esq

General Duties Branch HONG KONG

CONFIDENTIAL

NOT

SENT

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HONG KONG AND THE ILO

783

B

1. We have received two letters from Education and Manpower Branch (12 December and 19 April about Hong Kong's participation in the ILO Asian Regional Conference and in the next ILO Conference. Darwen Chen has also discussed the question with Miss Maxwell of the International Labour Adviser's Office. Their proposals are that the Hong Kong Labour Department should send a tripartite delegation to the ILO Asian Regional Conference in Jakarta in November, and if that is successful also to next years ILO Conference. Hong Kong was directly represented on the Regional Conference until 1976 when the ILO advised that Hong Kong could only attend as part of the UK delegation.

2.

We are not opposed to either of these proposals but we are anxious to ensure that Hong Kong's future participation in international organisations is considered as a whole by the Hong Kong Government and that we avoid independent initiatives running counter to that general policy. We would therefore be grateful for your considered views on these proposals within the context of Hong Kong's continued participation in the ILO.

3.

Our initial view is that it should be possible to arrange for Hong Kong to send a tripartite delegation to Jakarta to attend the Regional Conference at which the UK would be represented by someone from the Embassy. Nor would we anticipate any practical difficulties in a Hong Kong tripartite delegation attending the 1986 ILO Conference. The only likely difficulties lie in the Chinese response.

It is obvious that they were taken

Chinese

[JA 4 APF]

CONFIDENTIAL