TNAG-1738-FCO40-2454-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-Macau-1988 — Page 37

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little point in Macao going ahead with big projects unless more businesse could be attracted to make full use of the new facilities. There had bee expansion in business but not a great deal. However he had noticed a lot telegraphic traffic across the border with Zhuhai. The traffic seemed to be limited only by the ability of the Chinese authorities to handle it. It had made a difference to the overall pattern of telecommunications traffic in that connections to Hong Kong had dropped from 90% to about 75% of the total. Mr Curry said that of the big projects talked about, the most immediate seemed to be Taipa City. He said he would find it very useful to meet Gordon Wu and have a preliminary word about the communications that would be needed. I promised that I would talk to Gordon Wu and try to arrange a meeting in Macao or in Hong Kong. [I have since spoken to Mr Wu and arranged to introduce Mr Curry. As for the airport and the port development Mr Curry said he could not see these going ahead until the second bridge had been built between Macao and Taipa and there was no sign of anything happening on this front. Mr Curry said Macao had a history of abandoned projects. One reason was the lack of continuity between Administrations. Whenever a new Governor was appointed and he nominated his secretaries, all the outstanding projects would go into the melting pot. Mr Curry mentioned that the Government seemed to have stopped issuing Portuguese passports to Macanese. He said it was generally thought there were about 100,000 people in Macao who had the right to live in Portugal. He thought as many of these would have English as a second language as Portuguese. There was a popular belief that if they moved to Portugal they would then be able to move anywhere in the European Community in which case some of the English speakers might be attracted to Britain.

4.

At the Governor's office I met Mr Rocha Cabral, the Under-Secretary for Public Works and Housing. Mr Cabral has held a number of positions in the Portuguese Government; before coming to Macao he was Secretary of State for Energy. Mr Cabral said he was once the head of Portugual's equivalent of the Central Electricity Generating Board and he had had dealings with British Electricity and with NEI Parsons. I asked him about the power supply in Macao. He said there was a relatively small demand and the total installed capacity was only about 175 MW. The system was linked to China and on occasions Macao took power from the mainland. The equipment was a strange mixture; all diesel fuelled. He said he realised that relatively cheap coal was available from China, but the demand for electricity in Macao was insufficient to justify a coal-fired station. Mr Cabral said he and his colleagues in the Governor's team saw their jobs as a challenge. They thought there was much that could be done to improve the infrastructure and the economy of Macao before it was handed back to China. They hoped Macao would continue to be an attractive foothold for Portuguese and European businessmen interested in China. He said there was no question of trying to build another Hong Kong. Macao had a different character and different qualities and he hoped it would be possible to develop the territory in a distinctive way. He said it was the intention of the administration to invite companies or consortia to develop certain large projects in return for operating concessions. The Government would make an investment but it would be for the private sector to find most of the money and to carry out the construction. He said the largest projects the Government were preparing to launch were the airport, a small shipping port, a new bridge between Macao and Taipa, and an incineration plant.

5. I called on Mr Luis Vasconcelos, the Assistant Secretary for Transport and Special Projects. Mr Vasconcelos is a former businessman and said he too hoped the present adminstration could leave something worthwhile in Macao. We talked about the airport proposal. He confirmed that he had asked the Frankfurt Airport Group (FAG) to revise their 1983 economic viability study.

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