TNAG-1847-FCO40-2622-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 89

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Incidentally it is now circulated to over 3,000 potential customers for Britain in Hong Kong, the PRC and Taiwan. It produces a good number of responses and partly pays for itself through advertising. Now for a blatant plug: more advertising will help us to improve the coverage and extend the circulation; rate cards are available from Matthew Henderson.

I'd like to go back to myths. You remember the fuss a few months ago when it was reported that the number of British citizens in Hong Kong had dropped to 9,500. The cartoonists had a field day: were the missing Brits propping up the bar in the Foreign Correspondents Club or were they asleep in the reading room of the Hong Kong Club? At the time I was quoted as saying I was puzzled by the official figures and that there were a lot more than 9,500 Brits in Hong Kong: more like 20,000. I now have it officially from the Director of Immigration that the 9500 was an undercount. The figure is always low at the end of June because so many families are away for the school holidays but additionally, on this occasion, there was an omission. Apparently there is a problem unique to British citizens in that it is difficult to identify accurately and quickly at the airport whether they are residents or visitors. Some extra checking is needed to identify a resident and it was not done for the June figures. It has been done now to produce a new estimate of British citizens resident in Hong Kong at the end of September and the figure is about 15,400. To which must be added the Service personnel

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so a total of more than 20,000. In fact its even more than that because a lot of British people who regard themselves as residents but are not here for more than six months at a time have been classified as visitors. I hope that puts the record straight.

Another area where the British presence in Hong Kong has been under-rated, is investment. There has always been a lot of confusion over the only figures that are freely available: investment in manufacturing. In that area, we do have less than some other countries but of course companies decide on their own commercial judgement, the sectors in which they want to invest. The British investment is spread throughout the economy. It is difficult to come up with an accurate figure for the total because nobody keeps a comprehensive tally and also because some companies that are clearly British in origin or control often prefer to emphasise their Hongkongness. Nevertheless, the figures we do have, show that direct British investment is not much different from total Japanese investment. I am not saying any of this in a spirit of challenge or competition. Hong Kong is a place of international business and has been since the early days of British administration. Several countries do more trade here than we do.As a matter of fact I think its a great credit to Britain that this should be so and that Hong Kong has been able to develop its trade in such a free way. But the process has been such that the British contribution and investment does not always show up as "foreign". Some of it tends to be regarded as home-grown. This doesn't have any affect at all on the amount of business done, but the fact needs to be taken into account when peple try to identify the source of investment and involvement in Hong Kong. The UK has a very large stake here.

I have mentioned some ways in which the British presence is increasing. There are others: the new stores that have opened in the last two years; the trade missions (a new trade group from Britain arrives here almost every Sunday morning throughout the year except for June and July). There are more British groups at Hong Kong exhibitions (and when we take part in an exhibition we usually manage to have the largest national pavilion).