TNAG-2712-FCO40-3918-Parliamentary-relations-draft-White-Paper-on-Representative--1993 — Page 77

65. In the view of Her Majesty's Government and the Hong Kong

Government, the Chinese side's proposals would not deal

adequately with the problems associated with corporate voting and very small constituencies. Some of their specific proposals

also failed to meet the requirements for functional

constituencies. Kai Fong Associations are not economic or

professional groups of importance in the community.

There are

only some 50 such associations in Hong Kong. The proposal for a

Chinese Enterprises Association constituency is inconsistent

with Hong Kong's general approach of treating all investors and enterprises in the same way regardless of national origin. It

could be divisive to create constituencies on the basis of

"national" interests rather than economic and professional

groups. Many Chinese enterprises are already registered

electors in other functional constituencies. The Chinese

proposal for an Insurance Functional Constituency could only be

formed by splitting the existing Financial Services constituency

which was already very small. Given the small number of

authorised insurers in Hong Kong (229) the insurance

constituency would by itself be tiny.

66. The British side put forward revised proposals on the nine

new functional constituencies in round nine. These took account

of the Chinese proposal that functional constituencies should

all be based on organisations, and also built on six of the nine specific Chinese proposals. In subsequent Rounds, the British

side offered a number of further revisions to their list of

Functional Constituencies, in a major effort to bridge the gap. After these amendments, the British side's nine proposed

constituencies were:

-

-

Textiles and Garment

Wholesale/Retail and Import/Export

Manufacturing

Agriculture and Fisheries

statememt26.8/BRIEFS/NJH

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