TNAG-2254-FCO40-3238-Hong-Kong-Port-and-Airport-Development-Strategy-(PADS)-gene-1991 — Page 17

Dfs PERSONAL

FS

File No.

CONFIDENTIAL

Lea, by

-gree дея concideri

сё

Replacement Airport

DK,

Page

The ts wishes to cause ths on Monday morning.

I am worried about the whole replacement "airport

issue and, specifically, how we are dealing with it.

raved the

Save Nose

with

F

مامها

2.

It is only in recent days that it has come to me why I am concerned. Earlier I had thought that my worries

were about economic and financial viability, the sort of

things that good Deputy Financial Secretaries are supposed

to worry about. I realise now that this is not my main concern. The basic problem is the bureaucratic process.

3.

This Pauline revelation has been assisted, by a

number of factors, including :-

THAL

CONFIDENT

REGISTRY

14 NOV 1988 RECEIVED

GOVERNME

SOCRETARIAT

(i)

(ii)

the frightening descent in recent months into a bureaucratic nightmare of meetings, day after day, of working groups, steering groups, liaison meetings and other fora,

with which is associated a veritable

mountain of paper. And we are hardly into the first stages of PADS and FINS;

the suggestion at yesterday's FINS meeting

that perhaps the whole project can be

implemented by the civil service and that we do not need an independent authority

(c.f. MTRC) to build it;

(iii) the proposal that in respect of port

(iv)

development we must impose on the private

sector a pricing policy for their operations. Creeping intervention is only justified

if the political pressure for it cannot be

resisted;

a recognition that there is an element of

truth in the accusation that when civil

G.F. 82