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(b) The Budget and the Governor's Legco Speech
4.
It was noted that estimates of the costs of new policy proposals had been included in the Governor's speech.
(c) Appointments to Legco and Exco
5.
It was agreed that it would be useful to begin an early dialogue about new appointments that might be made to the two Councils next summer.
(a) The Economic Value of Hong Kong to the UK
6. Mr Haley said that his paper of 1977 still remained valid. The methods to be used in assessing the value of Hong Kong to Britain in civil aviation terms remain the major problem in assessing the overal economic value of Hong Kong to the UK. Hong Kong and General Department are in correspondence with the Hong Kong Government on this problem, and hope to be able soon to agree a basis for calculation. We shall then need to seek the co-operation of the DOT in working out the sums involved.
(e) British Exports to Hong Kong
7. It was noted that British exports were still increasing, and that the DOT and DOI had worked well to help British firms in their efforts to export to Hong Kong.
ITEM 3:
DEVELOPMENTS IN THE HONG KONG ECONOMY
8. The developments described in the Governor's letter of 20 November were discussed and it was agreed that the Economists should write to the Financial Secretary to pursue the more technical points that had been raised. The meeting expressed the hope that we would be consulted before any rephasing of public projects was undertaken, and that any reductions would not affect socially important areas such as housing and education.
9. The meeting noted that the Committee on Diversification was continuing with its work, and agreed that the department should keep in touch with developments.
ITEM 4:
EDUCATION
10. It was agreed that the proposals in the White Paper on Secondary and Tertiary Education were very encouraging. We should make it clear that we were ready to give whatever help we could in carrying out the proposed overall review of the Hong Kong education system. After her visit to Hong Kong, the Secretary of State for Education and Science had expressed interest in the review and emphasised her readiness to help in finding suitable people for the review body.
ITEM 5: HONG KONG/CHINA RELATIONS AND ANGLO/CHINA RELATIONS OVER
HONG KONG
11.
It was noted that we were awaiting proposals from the
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