'We gave in to his whims' - Francois Hollande, France's opposition Socialist Party spokesman, claiming Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng had bullied French President Jacques Chirac into dropping a remark about China's human rights before he would sign contracts worth US$2 billion.
'Feasibility studies showed that it would be impractical to locate banking operations de signed to meet the requirements of the 21st century in a building that was built in the 1920s' - Chris Langley, Hongkong Bank general manager, announcing, after three years mulling it over, it will not buy back its former Shanghai office headquarters.
'We cannot work under circumstances where anybody can come out and say we want to terminate your contract' - Gordon Wu Ying-sheung, Hopewell Holdings managing director, after suggestions from Thai ministers that Hopewell's contract to develop a US$3.2 billion mass transit system in Bangkok may be cancelled following delays.
'We may have to find Judge Pao' - a New World Infrastructure executive after its Odelon consortium lost a Court of Appeal bid to prove the Government had acted in an 'arbitrary or unreasonable' manner in awarding a tender to develop and operate a river trade terminal in Tuen Mun to a consortium which submitted a $1.2 billion lower bid.