THE Rathis have had a long association with the Birlas. K.B. Rathi has worked all his life for the Birla family. "So did my father and his father," he says, sitting in his office overlooking Hong Kong's busiest street, Queen's Road.
Rathi is now considered a doyen of the 온라인카지노 community in the colony and is the secretary-general of the Council of the Hong Kong 온라인카지노 Association and a permanent adviser to the 온라인카지노 General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. He is also a trustee of the Nehru Memorial Trust and the Tagore Centenary Trust. Rathi has been involved with the citizenship issue since 1984, when he was a member of the 온라인카지노 delegation that lobbied the House of Lords in London for full British citizenship for 온라인카지노 residents in Hong Kong.
"I have full British citizenship, my children are all back in Bombay and I have no need to agitate for citizenship here. But I believe that what I am doing concerns the whole business community," explains Rathi. "It is a matter of principle. 온라인카지노s have been an integral part of Hong Kong's economy from the time, and probably even before the time, Britain annexed the territory. It was 온라인카지노 civil servants and 온라인카지노 policemen and later 온라인카지노 soldiers who helped the British run the territory and they deserve something better in return."
He adds: "Hong Kong's history is intertwined with names like the Sassoons, from whom the Kad-oorie family descended, and those like Ruttonjee and Rustomjee, all from Bombay." The Kadoories control China Light and Gas, which monopolises the gas and electricity supply to Kowloon and the New Territories, and own majority shares of the Kowloon Peninsular Hotel, a Hong Kong landmark.
Others like property tycoon and hotelier Hari Harilela came in later, before World War II, but all of them have contributed more than their share to make Hong Kong a vibrant city, Rathi notes. It is a different matter that the Kadoories and Harilelas consider themselves British, not 온라인카지노, and are not involved in the current citizenship crusade. In fact, Lawrence Kadoorie was admitted to the House of Lords and all of his sons were knighted.
Similarly, a company spokesman for Hari Harilela, when contacted, said the Harilelas, whose companies are all believed to be registered outside Hong Kong, were no longer 온라인카지노s and thus were unlikely to have the same kind of problems as those faced by other "온라인카지노" businessmen.
For his part, Rathi is clear about his mission: "We (the 온라인카지노s) want to stay and continue to contribute. We are now responsible for more than 10 per cent of Hong Kong's external trade and employ around 7 per cent of the workforce."
According to him, 온라인카지노s also run over 1,200 offices in Hong Kong. "The 온라인카지노 General Chamber of Commerce is one of the five organisations, including the government and the Hong Kong general chamber, which can issue certificates of origins. This has been so since 1952."
He sees huge opportunities for 온라인카지노 business well past the takeover and feels they can do business with mainland China. He notes that there are already direct 온라인카지노-Chinese joint ventures as well as Hong Kong-온라인카지노 and Chinese joint ventures. "It will be in the best interest of the new sovereign power to foster these joint ventures and I am sure they will. But at the same time, it is also prudent for us to seek insurance." Clearly, these are anxious days for the 온라인카지노 community.
