A
*
5. Earlier this year in his letter of 1 March (HKK 9/4 folio 8) Mr Hillier-Fry of the ODA pointed out that £300,000 already allocated to Hong Kong for the technical institutes had not yet been committed. I am not clear what the position is over this money but it would be a very useful first tranche for the Polytechnic. The cost, although amounting to almost £1 million, would be spread over the 3 financial years:
6.
1973/74 1974/75 1975/76
£150,000
£350,000
£500,000
If expenditure were to keep up with these figures we should be called on for £150,000 approx in 1973/74 for the Polytechnic and £150,000 or so for the air traffic control radar simulator. Is it technically possible to switch this money from the allocation for the technical institutes if this is acceptable to Hong Kong? It seems to me that this might ease the position in the ODA context during the forthcoming financial year which is an especially tight one. I should welcome your advice but I would think there would be less difficulty in getting money allocated for the 2 succeeding years.
7. I should be grateful for your views and those of the other recipients of this minute both on the projects per se and the mechanics of how we should approach ODA and how we should get these requests written into the forward programmes.
20 September 1972
Copy to:
Export Promotion Dept Cultural Relations Dept A & TD (Mr Cromartie) Economists (Mr Armstrong)
ellaw
M A Goodfellow Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department