TNAG-2693-FCO40-3896-Meetings-and-calls-on-Alastair-Goodlad--Minister-of-State-fo-1993 — Page 32

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NOTE OF A CALL ON MR GOODLAD BY PAUL CHENG, CHAIRMAN, HONG

KONG GENERAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AT 10.30AM ON 14 MAY

- Mr Cheng said that Inchcape Pacific had announced a healthy

increase in 1992 profits and that business generally in Hong Kong was doing well. Everyone was now hoping that the talks with the Chinese would produce an agreement. He thought the

Chinese wanted an agreement and noted that when he met Li Peng

in Peking in March, Li had appeared keen to resolve the

situation. Mr Goodlad said that we hoped the talks would be

successful.

Mr Goodlad noted that the recent Hong Kong General Chamber of

Commerce (HKGCC) Committee election had been interesting.

Mr Cheng said that Peking had realised that Martin Barrow was likely to succeed him as Chairman and that the best way of preventing this was to have Mr Barrow voted off the Committee.

But the media had exaggerated the significance of the elections:

there were 24 committee seats and the election had involved only

6 of these. He thought that given the increase in Chinese investment in Hong Kong it was beneficial to have greater Chinese representation in the HKGCC.

- Mr Cheng said that the HKGCC was developing links with

commercial organisations in Taiwan and had agreed to hold an

annual meeting with the Federation of Industries in Taipei.

He thought that the recent meeting between China and Taiwan

officials in Singapore had been more symbolic than substantive.

Mr Goodlad agreed but said that it was nonetheless an important

symbol.

cheng.call.ADM

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