CHINA and Britain are moving closer to an agreement on the Container Terminal 9 project but a deal is unlikely during the Joint Liaison Group's current round of talks, which resumed yesterday after a six-month stalemate.
Sources said China had insisted the time was not ripe to give the go-ahead for the project during the talks, which end tomorrow.
British team leader Anthony Galsworthy made clear before going into the session that Britain was hoping for China's blessing for the multi-billion-dollar plan.
''It's the first meeting for six months. It is very difficult to tell until we start how it can go,'' he said.
''I hope we will have something positive to show to you. We will certainly like to see one [agreement on CT9], but I can't tell you at this stage whether it's likely or not.'' Mr Galsworthy said they had not received any proposals from the Chinese side regarding the controversial container terminal project.
''We have, however, been discussing it with them and I hope that they may very well feel by now it's an agreement to be reached.'' The executive director of Jardine Matheson, Sir Charles Powell, urged China to quickly approve the CT9 project during a recent visit to Beijing.
The source said that visit had helped to improve understanding between the two sides.