TNAG-2407-FCO40-3500-Airport-issues-in-Hong-Kong-Provisional-Airport-Authority.-W-1992 — Page 8

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(a)

it would not be catastrophic for the timetable (although it clearly makes it much tighter and would in practice result in completion after mid-1997);

(b) it would allow the various confusing figures on costs to sink in, and the realisation to grow that the complaints about cost escalation are over done; and

(၁)

Chinese complaints about inadequate time would become decreasingly credible.

S H Broadbent

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182/1

HKA 182/1

CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL

17 MAR 1992

Office of the

British Senior Representative Sino-British Joint Liaison Group

The Hon Mrs Anson Chan CBE

Secretary for Economic Services

HKG

4 March 1992

Dear Anom,

AIRPORT AUTHORITY BILL

Pa

либок

1. cc M. Bras AM 13/3

2. Mu Shque

M

12/ü

I am very conscious of the amount of work which you and colleagues have been putting into the draft Airport

деля

Authority Bill. I am also aware that some of the issues involved in the Bill have proved extremely difficult to resolve. Nevertheless, I think we need to take stock of the possible consequences of the dramatic slippage in timing of the initiation of consultation with the Chinese.

At the Airport Committee Steering Group meeting which I chaired on 11 December 1991, it was expected that the consultation document would be circulated to the Chinese in the week beginning 2 January. At the ACSG meeting which Alan Paul chaired on 8 January, it was reported that there had been some slippage in that timetable and that the consultation document would be issued to the Chinese in mid January. At the next meeting of the ACSG on 12 February, it was reported that the consultation document would be ready "in the next few days" and would then be ready for handing over to the Chinese "shortly afterwards". It was agreed that you and I should call on Guo to hand it over. I understand that you told Hu Houcheng last month that the Chinese side could expect a briefing on the Airport Authority Bill by the end of February/early March. I understand that the consultation document is still not ready: we have not yet seen a draft.

The Chinese will of course want to see the draft Bill itself at some stage, but I think we are all agreed that the more consultation that is carried out on the issues involved at an early stage, the less likely the Chinese will be to take issue with anything in the draft Bill. I understand that you are aiming to present the legislation to LegCo in June/July.

I am beginning to worry that, with the slippage in the date of

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initiation of consultation which we originally envisaged this timetable is going to become more difficult, and perhaps eventually impossible to meet. I do not wish to press you to begin consultations before you are ready: but I do think it necessary to put down a marker that the overall timetable may need to be revised in consequence.

eve

Чинг

Tuy

A C Galsworthy

1

Cc:

Chief Secretary

W G Ehrman Esq, Political Adviser

R Hui Esq, D/NAPCO

K Y Yeung Esq, Secretary for the Treasury

bcc P.F. Ricketts Esq, HKD, FCO.

CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL