TNAG-2791-FCO40-4030-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-China.-With-maps-1993 — Page 106

(5)

(6)

need to obtain the prior approval of the State Council. However, the State Council has no power to stop any infrastructural project to be carried out in HK after 1997.

of

if HK would be adversely affected Central Government should interfere in our infrastructural programme for the sake of coordination.

The

autonomy

the

There is no specifically-designed official and systematic liaison between the HK Government on the one hand and the other provincial and municipal government on the other in respect of infrastructural projects. There are only periodic visits and exchanges of information between HK officials and their counterparts of other provinces and cities.

and

Interface may be necessary for some of the transport infrastructures, such as highways and railways, between HK the Delta region. There is, however, no existing mechanism to facilitate liaison between HK and China. As regards the consultation process, if the HK Government should consult the Chinese side prior to consulting the local public opinion, everything reached between both This governments might well become an established fact. would make one feel that the HK Government cares too much about the reaction of the Chinese side.

C)

(1)

(2)

(3)

Fundamental Position

We support, in principle, an appropriate interface among the major infrastructural projects within the Pearl River Delta Region and an enhanced liaison between HK on the one side and the various provinces and cities of the region on the other.

We propose the formation of a permanent and systematic consultative machinery so as to improve the exchange of information on infrastructural development within the Delta region as well as to serve as a forum of discussions between HK and the various provinces and cities regarding the possible interface of infrastructural projects. Being not an organisation with authority, this consultative machinery should not be directly involved in the decision- making process relating to the infrastructural development

of HK.

The two principles set out below must be fulfilled in regard to the coordination of infrastructural development between HK and China: