CY JUDE L
COMMENT:
CONFIDEN
L
MANAGEMENT IN CONFIDENCE
FM FCO
TO IMMEDIATE BTC HONG KONG
TELNO 14
OF 27093OZ JANUARY 93
HKCD 340/2
28 JA 1900
pu
MIST
24/1
10
FOR SBTC, FROM RICKETTS, HKD
8
YOUR TELNO 29 AND TELECON SBTC/RICKETTS, HKD OF 25 JANUARY: BNHKA/BRITISH UNDERTAKINGS
1.
As we discussed briefly on the telephone, we here are not envisaging a wide-ranging programme of consultation which would create a lot of work at your end. We realise that you and your staff are stretched. What we had in mind was that you might take personal soundings among the senior executives OF the top British companies in Hong Kong. We need to know whether they can produce hard evidence that key employees of British undertakings, in the target age group and with good technical qualifications and experience, have failed in the British Nationality Scheme and, in consequence, are leaving their employers to join rival countries' companies in Hong Kong.
2. As Morris' Letter to you of 14 January indicated, to date we know of only the two employees of the Bonas Machine Company and they, while quote key unquote employees from Bonas' perspective, did not fit the above profile. We note from TUR that
was turned down. This could be the kind of evidence we are seeking. But was he in the target age group, and in which category did he apply QUERY. (EG had he applied under an oversubscribed category, Like Engineers or Accountants, and had been over 50 years old, his lack of success would be explicable and would not suggest that British Links points need amending).
3. On the evidence from Hong Kong Immigration Department, key employees of British undertakings in the target groups appear to have done disproportionately well. Accordingly we could justify increasing the advantage conferred by British links points only if there were solid/solid grounds for doing so. This is an important point. If your contacts produce no such grounds, but merely express a general wish for a bigger slice of the pie, we would not be able to recommend to Ministers an amendment. The risk is that increasing British Links points would so distort the points system that Less-qualified people with British links would supplant better qualified employees without such links. This would dilute the value of the scheme to Hong Kong.
We obviously leave it to you to decide how to take this forward. Seen from here, it could either be through personal soundings in the course of your regular contacts with leaders of the British business community or by means of a meeting of your British Links Advisory Committee. But we do need the answer within the next couple of weeks in order to reply to No 10. We cannot wait for the question of reinforcing YOUR MANAGEMENT SECTION TO
be resolved first. I hope that this can be accomplished without adding to the workload of your Management Officer.
40(2)
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