Mr. Ricketts, HUD
13 September 1991
Sir David Ford KBE LVO JP
HONG KONG
CONFIDENTIAL
HKB 182 / 7
2/7
File:HKD
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
(19)
79
London SW1 2AH
W
du
Mr Flayers
Stony
De
Ders Dauid,
PADS: KEEPING MINISTERS INFORMED
1.
The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) draws a line under that phase of the airport saga. All concerned here are clear that the ball is now in the Hong Kong Government's court to get the project up and running. We look forward to seeing Richard Allen in London next week.
2.
Of course, we must be prepared for hitches and glitches, both from the Chinese side and from interested parties here. You already know my concern that, given the high political visibility of the project here, we should try to avoid surprises for our Ministers. It will therefore remain very important that Ministers have access to comprehensive and up-to-date information on the project and how its component parts are progressing.
3.
Let me say that we are well satisfied with the types of papers and material that you have been sending us. We find your regular up-date of the contracts let and contracts to be let most useful. We also obtain a regular flow of information on what senior officials have said through the daily press summaries which you send to the Hong Kong Government London office and which they copy to us.
4. The focus will now shift to the Airport Committee constituted under the Joint Liaison Group. I hope that you or Tony Galsworthy will be able, at an early stage, to send us copies of all the papers that go to this Committee. It will also be important that we keep in early contact over any potentially controversial subjects that you may need to put to the Committee. I have in mind such things as possible delays to projects, possible significant cost increases, and trends in the award of any tenders, contracts or franchises of which the Chinese might be suspicious. These are all areas where Ministers might wish to be consulted on how best to tackle the Chinese. I imagine that the Chinese interest will now be to get the project forging ahead with minimum
BOWACA/1
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CONFIDENTIAL
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