TNAG-2967-FCO40-4246-Future-of-Hong-Kong-British-Consulate-General-inclusion-of--1993 — Page 19

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BIEU

Foreign & Commonwealth

Office

RE

29 SEP 1993

London SWIA 2AH

Telephone: 071-

Pwks

27 September 1993

Michael Sze Esq

Secretary for Constitutional Affairs

HONG KONG

Dear Michael.

BRITISH CONSULATE GENERAL: PRIVATE TREATY GRANT

The

I am sure you hoped this beast would not rear its ugly head again! But I wonder whether I could ask you to take an interest in one remaining issue - mainly to ensure that the wider picture is considered when decisions are taken. subject is our plans to include the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) in the new Consulate General building. I thought it worth explaining the point to you before we instruct Francis Cornish to seek formal approval from the Director of Building and Lands Department (BLD).

Developing commercial and economic relations between the United Kingdom and the future Special Administrative Region (SAR) will of course be a key function of the Consulate General. Ministers consider it will be important to have the BCC in the new building and that this would be consistent with the original conception of the building as bringing together all the main elements of the British official presence in the SAR on a scale which shows commitment to the Territory.

We propose that the BCC's accommodation in the building would be governed by a licence prepared in Hong Kong; we plan to ask the Director of BLD for written approval, in accordance with Special Condition 13 of the Private Treaty Grant (PTG), to give such a licence to the BCC. This licence would not give rise to any interest in land and we envisage that the Chamber would pay a licence fee to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office equating to the cost of providing and servicing the space. A licence of this sort would ensure that we retained control over the occupancy at any stage (for example by giving us the power to terminate occupancy at any stage).

For your information, we anticipate that the area be allocated to the BCC would amount to not more than 200 square metres (out of a total of about 19,000). We have discussed the plan in

principle with the BCC.

Our experience during the negotiation of the PTG suggested

It.bloeung20sep.NAT

JEB

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