I always read Jake van der Kamp's 'Monitor' column in your business section. I sometimes disagree with him and occasionally he loses me with his graphs and figures, but at the very least his columns are well argued and well thought out. His piece on January 15 on parallel imports, was particularly apposite. I too was interested in the comments of the Deputy Secretary for Commerce and Industry Kenneth Mak Ching-yu, that lifting the ban on parallel imports of music CDs and videos might be rejected in view of distributors' concerns over their business interests. I would ask Mr Mak, or anyone else for that matter, to defend the continued imposition of the ban on parallel imports. It may take some circumlocution, but I would be interested to hear an explanation of how the ban helps the person in the street and how it fits in with Hong Kong's reputed laissez-faire attitude. I fear that the relationship between the Government and big business has become too close. ROBERT BENTLEY Pokfulam
