TNAG-2234-FCO40-3207-FCO-sponsored-visits-from-Hong-Kong-to-the-UK-1991 — Page 66

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НКВ 02.7.1.3.

MAY

BRITISH TRADE COMMISSION

HONG KONG.

26 February 1991

Mr. Paul, HKD May we diswas

You-plaple

ites

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28/2

R A Burns Esq AUS

Mr. Bucks old ver

FCO

1/3

_attached

Dear Andrew,

FCO SPONSORED VISITS: HONG KONG

1.

Thank you for your letter of 11 February.

I am sorry

the list of nominees we provided did not find favour.

2.

As explained in my letter of 29 January our objective was to meet the requirements in FCO telno 102 of 22 June 1990 to produce a list "well in excess of the quotas" and to pick "those whom we want to influence". I fully agree with the premise in that telegram that we have not made effective use of this scheme in the past. Whereas you are a little critical of our list your letter does not give me much additional guidance on what different sorts of people you are looking for. Hong Kong is of course a small place. It has far more of you in the FCO focussing on it than anywhere else in the world of comparable size. It is not likely therefore that we will be able to come up with anything other than well- known names, if we are looking for people who are currently in powerful positions, which is how Category I visits are allocated elsewhere in the world. If we are looking for the leaders of influence in the future, then we have to go quite far down the scale to find people not already known to you.

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3. The list which I put forward to the Governor mostly concentrated on those already in positions of power and influence but young enough to remain in such positions for years to come with some further concentration on those who seem likely to want to stay beyond 1997. I appreciate that such persons for the most part already go to the UK quite often. Nevertheless their visits are usually for a particular purpose. I believe they could still benefit from a well-targeted programme in which we would show them the best of what Britain could do in areas of our choosing relevant to their work. The Governor in his comments on my list suggested the deletion of a few because they go to Britain fairly frequently, and added quite a number of names of people quite a bit lower down the totem pole who might be seen as the leaders of tomorrow, acting I believe on advice from his Administration. Our final combined list which I submitted was therefore a synthesis of the two and was a mix of the well- known people already in top places and those yet to reach that

/level.

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