TNAG-2141-FCO40-3060-Hong-Kong-Port-and-Airport-Development-Strategy-(PADS)-1990 — Page 113

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HKC 182/2

EIVED IN

Y

13 JUN 1990

174572

MDLIAN 5777

CONFIDENTIAL

FM BTC HONG KONG

TO PRIORITY DTI

TELNO OTTER 129

OF 01120OZ JUNE 90

CAMENDED DISTRIBUTION)FFICER

INFO ROUTINE TOKYO, PEKING, FCO

TOP COPY Q DIST?

FOR ROGERS, PEP

रफ

MY TELNO OTTER 127: HONG KONG AIRPORT PROJECT

1. SIR GORDON MANZIE TOLD ME BEFORE HIS DEPARTURE ON 31 MAY THAT

ALL HIS AND FLETCHER'S MEETINGS WITH THE HONG KONG GOVERNMENT AND

THOSE IN THE CONSTRUCTION SCENE HERE HAD GONE WELL. MORE CRITICAL HAD BEEN HIS MEETINGS WITH MITSUI. IKADA, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF MITSUI, HAD COME FROM TOKYO TO MEET WITH HIM HERE, AND HAD SAID HE WAS STILL CONFIDENT OF BRINGING IN THE FOUR MAIN JAPANESE PLAYERS (NSC, MHI, NKK, AND IHI). MANZIE WAS PUTTING THIS TO THE TEST BY ASKING HIM TO GO BACK TO TOKYO AND THEN LET THE ANGLO-

JAPANESE GROUP HAVE FIRM ASSURANCES AND MORE ACCEPTABLE TERMS UNDER

WHICH THEY AND THE PARTNERS WOULD PARTICIPATE IN A PRE-EMPTIVE BID.

(WHETHER OR NOT THEY RETAINED THE LINKS FOR AN OPEN TENDER BID, IF THE PRE-EMPTIVE BID WAS REJECTED, WAS FOR CONSIDERATION LATER). MANZIE SAID THIS WOULD BE THE TEST OF WHETHER MITSUI COULD DELIVER.

HE SAID THAT ALTHOUGH MITSUI WERE CLEARLY NERVOUS THEY WERE STILL

CONFIDENT. UNTIL SHORTLY BEFORE HIS DEPARTURE, MANZIE HAD HAD NO MEANINGFUL MEETING WITH BENJAMIN OF THE C.ITOH GROUP. THEY HAD

PLANNED TO MEET A COUPLE OF TIMES BUT HAD HAD COMMUNICATION

DIFFICULTIES AND HAD FAILED TO DO SO.

2.

MANZIE SAID THAT HE HAD TOLD THE HONG KONG GOVERNMENT THAT IF

THEY DO INSIST ON AN OPEN TENDER FOR THE BRIDGE THEN IN ORDER TO

GET IT DONE ON TIME MOTT MACDONALD'S DESIGN CONTRACT MUST BE

EXTENDED SO THAT THE BIDDING IS DONE ON BASIS OF AN EXISTING

DESIGN. WE KNOW (MY TELNO OTTER 127) THAT C. ITOH HAD SAID THE

SAME.

HEAP

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