5.
6.
CONFIDENTIAL
3.
The Gibraltar Government was prepared to import electricity from Spain through the Ministry of Defence interconnector. It would therefore not be seen to
be importing supplies directly from Spain. It appeared that the MOD had gone cold on the idea since they were now installing a new engine in their power station.
The Chief Minister felt that the Government's decision to use a private company for the supply of electricity was commercially feasible.
Mr
The
Maude enquired whether a decision had been taken on the future of Gibraltar's telecommunications. Chief Minister replied that a decision was imminent, but that there had been certain problems with the Unions. involved. The Minister for
for Government Services
Services added that the telephone service would be commercialised with the Government retaining a stake. This made the staff feel relatively more secure. The Chief Minister added that the corporate and management structure for the commercialisation of the telephone service was very different to what had been done in the commercial dockyard with A & P Appledore and that the Government expected to avoid the enormous problems which had bedevilled the operations of GSL.
On GSL, the Chief Minister pointed out that employment levels had fallen to around 160. The deadline for GSL to break even was now mid-1990. The yard had been slimmed down to the bone
the bone although there remained around 120 employees on the payroll without any work. However, this cost was no longer hidden
hidden in GSL's overheads. At present there were on-going discussions with Norwegian interests for the handover of the yard's shiprepair operations.
Land Reclamation
7.
was
Mr Maude asked about progress on the Government's land reclamation
The programme.
Chief Minister said that proposals for the east side reclamation were now being finalised. Phase 1 of the reclamation on the western side had been completed and it was planned to start reclamation on Phase 2 shortly which would extend up to the area of the North Mole. The target date 1992. Mr Maude asked that the
that the FCO should be kept in touch with developments. He wondered whether the time scale for the east side was over-ambitious. The MTI stated
decision would be taken sometime in February of this year and that a start should be made on the project by August 1990. The project would take 18 months to complete and would involve reclamation of 60
of acres
land. Mr Maude asked what type development was envisaged. The Chief Minister explained that the east side reclamation would involve development of leisure facilities. The dockyard area would become
the newly reclaimed
an
that
industrial
a
and park
area
of
on
CONFIDENTIAL
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