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com. 27
FROM:
CO HUM
HONG KONG DEPARTMENT
DATE:
15 April 1987
Mr Mola.
McLaren
CC.
Mr Layden
Mr F Wheeler
PEP Division
DTI
WESTERN HARBOUR-LANTAO STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT
1.
I received a call yesterday from Mr Peter Costain, the
Managing Director of the engineering company of the same name. He
had asked urgently to come and see me to discuss HMG's attitude to
the above project. As you know, it is the brain-child of Mr Gordon
Wu of Hopewell. It would involve the construction of a second
airport and harbour complex in the vicinity of Lantao Island.
Costains are the British co-ordinators of the project.
2.
Mr Costain's enquiry boiled down to two questions. First,
he wanted to know if HMG might be prepared to view the project as a
symbol of British commitment to Hong Kong in the period of the
handover of sovereignty, and accordingly to make a signficant
financial contribution. I said that the FCO certainly did not have
funds which could be devoted to such an objective: the use of Aid
Funds evidently would not be appropriate. I was not aware of any
appropriate source of finance elsewhere in Government for a major
contribution. But we were of course ready to assist the project in
accordance with the normal procedures open to us, and the DTI had
already made a contribution to feasibility studies. In the longer
term the crucial question was whether the Hong Kong Government
concluded that the project was the right one for Hong Kong.
3.
Mr Costain's second enquiry was whether HMG could do more to
encourage the Hong Kong Government to look favourably upon the
project. I said that I was sure he was aware of the particularly delicate relationship between HMG and the Hong Kong Government.
The
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