CONFIDENTIAL
ECGD to providing export credit cover after 1997 will therefore crucial. A Ministerial decision on this is
still awaited.
3.
We have little information about other possible Japanese competitors. But we know that following rumours that the Anglo-Japanese consortium may be running into difficulties, other British companies, including George Wimpey and Kier (part of the Beazer Group) have been actively seeking a role for themselves in the project and that some of them have been talking to possible Japanese contenders as likely
allies or partners.
D 4. At a meeting with the DTI on 24 May, a team from JAIDO
(the Keidanren's Committee on International Cooperatipn projects) indicated that nothing was yet certain about Japanese participation in future consortia but that JAIDO (which is partly government-owned) expected to play a part in coordinating this. The Mitsubishi representative who was accompanying the JAIDO team also questioned whether Mitsui was the right partner for the Anglo-Japanese consortium and suggested that Kumagaigumi might have been a better choice (a point with which Mr Adams (DTI) appeared to agree).
E 5. Sir Piers Jacobs told Mr Heap at the end of last month
that he was disturbed by reports of the failure of Costains and Trafalgar House to get Japanese support. He said that their group had been well ahead of the competition at one stage but that there were now some very strong contenders in the field. He stressed that it was important that any differences with the Japanese be reconciled since an Anglo-Japanese partnership was very attractive to the Hong
Kong Government.
Rosalind Mand
R M Marsden
MARAFN
CONFIDENTIAL
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