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Bank) for which responsibility for one's own external
MA
relations is a condition of membership
but is a member of
the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for which it qualifies
by virtue of being an associate member of the UN Economic
and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
Because Hong Kong is not responsible for its external
relations, its membership of the ADB is conditional on HMG
assuming responsibility for all its obligations to the
Bank, including financial guarantees on project loans and
capital (on-call) subscriptions to capital stock. Guarantees
of loans and callable capital are authorised under Section 7
of the Overseas Development and Co-operation Act 1980 within
a present limit variable by Statutory Order of £90 million.
This limit may soon need to be increased (see below).
inci
Hong
Kong is currently in receipt of four loans from the ADB,
1 worth a total of US$72.2 million; in addition there is
currently a contingent liability in respect of callable
capital of US$45.7 million. A General Capital Increase (GCI)
is presently under discussion at the ADB, which would
increase this contingent liability (possibly by up to
US$60 million).
ECGD Exposure
12.
ECGD's current commitments in Hong Kong amount to about
$3 billion. They do not expect to be able to scale down
this figure during the period up to 1997 - indeed, commitments
8
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