BACKGROUND
References: A
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CONFIDENTIAL
B
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Extract from record of meeting between Chief
Minister and Mr Maude 25 January 1990
Correspondence on Gibraltar's powers to grant right of residence
C - FCO telno 163 to Gibraltar
A
B
U
1. At the beginning of the year the Chief Minister raised
the subject with Mr Maude of attracting entrepreneurs and
investment to Gibraltar from Hong Kong. Mr Maude made clear
that HMG welcomes schemes which have a similar aim to the
British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act in encouraging people to
remain in Hong Kong by giving them the assurance of right of entry/abode elsewhere. The Chief Minister accepted this and
asked if it would be possible to include Gibraltar in the
Bill which was about to be introduced to Parliament at that
time. This would have further complicated the already complex legislation and in any case, there appeared to be
ample scope to introduce a scheme for Hong Kong people under
the existing Immigration Rules of Gibraltar. The Chief
Minister has since confirmed that there is no difficulty in
Gibraltar granting permits under their own Immigration
Control Ordinance. Mr Garel-Jones reminded Bossano of the
purpose of our nationality scheme when they meet on
11 September, and undertook to consider in that light the proposal to offer right of residence in Gibraltar to 2000 Hong Kong people in exchange for some £20m investment in a
land reclamation project.
2. We would have no objection in principle to settlement in
exchange for investment, many countries, including the UK, have business migrant schemes; we would also not wish to
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