TNAG-2408-FCO40-3502-Hong-Kong-Port-and-Airport-Development-Strategy-(PADS)-Brit-1992 — Page 50

-08-MPR-1992

17:43

BRITISH TRADE COMM

BRIT INT

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PRESS RELEASE

73

HKA 182/3

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STATEMENT BY THE SENIOR BRITISH TRADE COMMISSIONER,

MR PETER HEAP, 8 APRIL 1992

McVickett

Mr Cox my HE FUR

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I am concerned about reports, such as that in today's South China Morning Post, that British companies have been securing a disproportionate number of the contracts in Hong Kong's Port and Airport Development Strategy (PADS), this coupled with suggestions that there could be favouritism towards the British companies concerned.

Questions on why particular contracts have been awarded to particular companies or groups of companies have to be addressed

There are however some to those who awarded the contracts. powerful underlying points that I wish to make.

Many of the

It

In

It has been suggested that British firms have received an undue

That British or British proportion of the consultancy contracts. related firms have done well in this area does not surprise me. Consultancy engineering originated in Britain. world's best and biggest engineering consultants are British. is one of the areas of Britain's greatest commercial success. any major building project around the world British consultants are likely to have done well. If British consultancy firms have picked up a significant number of contracts on the PADS project then that is nothing less than I would expect and it does not need defending. Moreover, most of the consultancy firms concerned have been established in Hong Kong for many decades. They are mostly local partnerships with partners from many parts

These of the world besides Britain and including Hong Kong. companies have brought benefits to Hong Kong and have provided employment to many skilled local people for a very long time. many, and perhaps most, cases they could be regarded as Hong Kong more than British companies. Furthermore, these companies know

It is surely intimately the working conditions in Hong Kong.

only reasonable to expect them to be competitive against companies from elsewhere with little experience of Hong Kong.

In

The

The criticism of the award of contracts to British companies ignores the significant number of contracts, and in many cases much larger contracts, that have gone to non-British firms. contract for the overall project management for PADS went to Bechtel of the United States. The overall financial management contract went to Morgan Stanley of the United States.

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