DCTOR, HONG KONG
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TELEPHONE: 826 1888
FAX: (852) 845 0223
TELEX: HX 75144
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
December 24, 1990
BARCLAYS BANK PLC 17/F TWO PACIFIC PLACE 88 QUEENSWAY HONG KONG
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Mr. Peter Heap
British Trade Commission Bank of America Tower Harcourt Road
Hong Kong
Dear Pate
UK Passport Scheme
You are already aware that I (along with many of my colleagues who head British companies in Hong Kong) have a fear that some of our very best and most highly qualified staff may be disadvantaged as against, say, HK Government Civil Servants through the application of the 150 points for "Special Circumstances".
This scheme, of course, is looking at matters from the Hong Kong perspective. With this in mind, I make the point that Hong Kong's position as a leading financial center depends not so much on the "masses" involved in commercial banking activities as this business is very substantially local to Hong Kong and within reason whatever the level of service Hong Kong companies will be obliged to deal with local banks. The position is in fact substantially dependent upon a relatively small number of highly skilled people in the "Merchant Banking" business. It is they who win mandates for international banks operating in Hong Kong but doing their business on a regional basis. Such people are highly skilled in structuring complex financial transactions in such specialist fields as project finance
(i.e. the new airport at Chep Lap Kok), aircraft financing (i.e. Cathay Pacific), capital raisings for local banks (i.e. Dao Heng), asset financing (i.e. CITIC) etc. etc. Each such transaction has its own special features and seldom if ever will the same structure be appropriate for two transactions.
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