22 November 1991
Sir David Wilson GCMG
HONG KONG
Page
CONFIDENTIAL
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SW1A 2AH
Dear Javid,
UK BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES: AIRPORT ETC
1.
Thank you for your letter of 11 November. It was useful to have the facts about what lobbying in support of business opportunities you and your senior officials are subject to. It was also helpful to have confirmation (not that I doubted it) that HKG will decide each contract separately on the basis of what provides the best deal for Hong Kong i.e. you are not concerned about maintaining a balance of international involvement. And I note your impression of British businessmen: we, DTI and BTC all do what we can to discourage crude approaches of the kind you mention.
2.
You ask about the provenance of the reports that Giscard and Shultz had been supporting French and US interests. We do not have the details to hand. We had understood that Shultz visited from time to time on behalf of Bechtel (which you confirm) and that Giscard had led a 15-man team during the summer (perhaps during your leave?) on behalf of Bouygues-Dragages. But we did not know that Giscard had no contact with senior Government officials and that Shultz did not lobby on his latest visit. Thank you for this clarification.
Sir J Coles
TUGAAV
four wer
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CONFIDENTIAL
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