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22 February 1989
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PRIME MINISTER'S MEETING WITH THE GOVERNOR OF HONG KONG
The Prime Minister had a meeting lasting about an hour this evening with the Governor of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Economy
The Governor gave the Prime Minister an account of developments in Hong Kong, drawing attention in particular to the performance of the economy. The Prime Minister expressed concern at the lack of new investment from Britain.
British Representation
The Prime Minister said that the Governor's task was to represent the interests of the people of Hong Kong. A case could be made for establishing a separate office to represent purely British interests. This would become the nucleus of our eventual Consulate-General after 1997. The Governor said that we already had a senior British Trade Commissioner. He was not convinced that further upgrading of the post would be justified. Hong Kong was a highly sophisticated market economy with only limited scope for official trade promotion activities. He attached great important, however, to an early decision on a site for a British Consulate-General. The Prime Minister said that it was very important to future confidence in Hong Kong that Britain should be seen to acquire a substantial building on a prestigious site for its official representation. This would inevitably be expensive, but that would have to be borne. She wished to be involved in discussions and decisions on this.
Immigration
The Prime Minister said that she remained convinced that we should do more to attract enterprising Hong Kong people to the UK. As it was we ended up with Vietnamese boat people, while people with money and enterprise went to the US, Canada and Australia. Such people were more likely to stay and conduct their business in Hong Kong if they knew that they had the option of coming here. Although we were making it
CONFIDENTIAL
22 FEB 1989 PRIVATE SECRETARY LETTER POWELL -
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