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1978, China began to accept a series of loans from
foreign private banks and governments. According to
Dr Jao's estimates, China's medium to long term foreign credit lines had reached US$31 billion by the beginning of 1982. This amount was very substantial; being 69% larger than China's total merchandise exports in 1981 (US$18.3 billion) and six times larger than China's hard currency and gold reserves
at the end of 1981 of US$5.1 billion. However, only
a small proportion of these credit lines have been used. This is partly related to the re-adjustment programme started in 1979 which cut back sharply on many investment projects. Any Chinese organization wishing to use foreign funds for an investment project must now prove that the project can generate sufficient profit and foreign currency revenue to
repay the debt. This together with many other tough criteria resulted in the cutting back of many
investment projects.
38.
(b) Transactions between financial
institutions in Hong Kong and China
It was not until 1979 that statistics on the
external liabilities and claims of licensed banks and
deposit-taking companies (DTCs) in Hong Kong by country of origin were compiled and released on a quarterly basis by the Banking Commissioner's
Office. The financial transactions between financial
institutions (banks and deposit-taking companies) in Hong Kong and China since then are summarised in
Table 12.
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