CONFIDENTIAL
DRAFT
BACKGROUND NOTE
1.
The current annual cost of the Hong Kong garrison is about £42m. The cost can vary depending on what expenditure is included eg Gurkha Lines of Communication, Air Movements etc so it is con-
sidered safer to quote a rounded figure of £10m. The Hong Kong
Defence Contribution covering April 1971 to March 1976 was for a
total of £40m. to be provided over the 5 years: The amount within
this for 1974/75 was £8.5m. There has however been a recent agreed
further contribution by the Hong Kong Government of a total of £2.85m.
towards capital works costs bringing the total Defence Contribution
up to £42.85m. It would be reasonable to attribute part of this
increase to current costs and we would therefore regard the Hong Kong
Government as paying about £10m. out of about £40m. at the present time. Thus, "about 25%" is a sufficiently accurate answer as to the
proportion of the cost currently met by Hong Kong and was given in
reply to a question from Mr P Walker on 9 December, 1974.
The
2. Gross National Produce statistics for Hong Kong are not
published. The latest Gross Domestic Product figure has been
estimated as Hong Kong dollars 28.300m. for 1973, or approximately
£2270m. GNP would be expected to be somewhat higher than GDP7.
Defence Contribution of £10m. expressed as a percentage of GDP is
thus about 0.4%. Since accurate up-to-date GNP figures for Hong Kong
are not available it is recommended that the proportion should be
expressed as about less than 147.
CONFIDENTIAL