TNAG-2947-FCO40-4223-Third-Country-Right-of-Abode-Schemes-for-Hong-Kong-1993 — Page 73

To:

MR HAGESTADT OT2/1

From:

JOHN MEADWAY HD/OT2

BAY 746/KH 215 5230

23 March 1993

M

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ith Houston 3/3.

VISIT TO VANCOUVER: 16 MARCH

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Copy:

HKD 341/31

Miss Buss

descers piling.

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Mr C W Roberts Mr Love OT2/2

Sir Nicholas Bayne

Mr Davies Mr Boardman Mr Pellew

3113.

1. cc:

Ottawa

Toronto Vancouver

NAD FCO

a

HKD

Mr Ricketts, Mr Davies, FED Me Bennett, RAD

2. Mr Hock

Mr Turner

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The reason I returned from South East Asia via Vancouver was to try to get some feel of the economic impact of the large ingress of Hong Kong Chinese which has attracted considerable attention.

2.

I found it was generally agreed that this was one, but only one, of the reasons that British Columbia has been doing significantly better economically than the rest of Canada (e.g. 2.5% growth in 1992 cf 1.1% for Canada as a whole). More broadly, this seems to be due to considerable in-flows of population not only from Asia but from elsewhere in Canada.

3. Hong Kong Chinese are by no means the only Asian community in the Vancouver area. Canada has, within reason, a pro-immigration policy and this is reflected by, for instance, the presence of a significant Indian community. recently, there has been beginnings of an influx from Taiwan.

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4. The oldest Asian community is the Japanese Canadian one. This dates back to the early years of the century but may be on its way out since I was told the rate of marriage out of the community was now 80%. The main Japanese involvement currently is through important investments in the resource based, especially forestry, industries that are central to the British Columbia economy; Japan is a major market for Canadian exports of sawn timber and more processed timber products.

5. The main features of the Hong Kong Chinese immigration has been investment in property. They have made some investments in manufacturing; I heard about small ones in the computer assembly and textile areas, but this is not typical.

6.

Overall, the immigrants' purpose was to secure passports for a "bolt-hole" against unfavourable developments in Hong Kong post-1997. More recently, many of these immigrants have

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