TNAG-1876-FCO40-2667-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-Japan-1989 — Page 41

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ANGLO-JAPANESE SYMPOSIUM, AVIGNON, 3-5 NOVEMBER

1. I attended an Anglo-Japanese symposium in Avignon over the weekend of 3-5 November. This was a privately organised venture (see below). I attach a summary note of some of the key issues discussed, together with a list of participants.

2.

The organiser of this symposium, and owner of the Chateau Le Tourreau outside Avignon where it was held, is a Mr Michael Dobbs-Higginson. Mr Dobbs-Higginson is currently Chairman of Merril Lynch operations in the Asia/Pacific region and is based in Hong Kong. Earlier in his career, he established five companies in Japan before joining the Credit Suisse First Boston Bank, where he was responsible for the CSFB operations in the Asia Pacific region and Africa. Born in Rhodesia in 1941, he obviously prospered in his business ventures. He bought the Chateau de Tourreau six years ago and has subsequently invested large sums of money in it. He made us all very welcome, claiming that his objective in organising this informal symposium was to put back into UK/Japan relations some of the benefits which he had derived from his association with both countries. Mr Dobbs-Higginson met Mr Charles Powell in Austria during the summer holidays on the occasion of Mr Helmut Sohnen's 50th birthday party and was in touch with Mr Powell about the symposium shortly thereafter. I am sending Mr Powell a copy of the attached note.

3. It was a pity that the Japanese team did not include anyone from the Diet. But the mixture of business and Government on both sides was a great advantage. I was particularly struck both by the calibre of the Japanese businessmen present and by their frankness. On the UK side,

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