布政司署
香港下亞厘畢道
CONFIDENTIAL
DIEU
ETAMON
12
GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
*** OUR REF.: SCR 11/4841/86
來函檔號 YOUR REF.:
A. M. Layden, Esq.,
HKD,
FCO
RECT.
Dear Anthony
Anthony
HKK 291/1
2 € AUG 1983
T
5th August, 1986
Mr. Jest's wh isk
Possible Hong Kong/Japan Cultural Agreement
I write to bring you up to date on developments since our tel. no. 1563 of 21 May. The proposed agreement was raised only briefly by Mr. Abe during the Governor's visit to Japan, and the Governor replied as foreshadowed in paragraph 8 of our telegram. We have since been examining both within the Hong Kong Government and with the Japanese Consulate-General whether a text acceptable to both sides is possible.
2.
The Japanese have made it plain that they wish to follow the model of the agreement with Papua New Guinea very closely. Our main problem with that is that it involves the government in the administration of the grant, maintenance of the equipment supplied etc. HKG does not get involved in this way with the affairs of Hong Kong universities and polytechnics. Nor do we wish to. We do not want Japanese grants to these institutions passing through the public accounts. We also have a problem with the Japanese requirement for exemption from taxes and duties, and have pointed out to them (a) that any liability is likely to be extremely small, and (b) to waive it altogether would require legislation.
3.
The point we have now reached with the
Consulate-General is that we have passed them a draft (attached) based on the PNG model, but with the following main changes:
(a)
almost all references to the Government of Hong Kong have been replaced by references to the recipient institution of higher education, which would receive monies directly from the Japanese Government, enter into contracts verified by the Japanese government, etc. HKG's role should end once it had been agreed with the Japanese government what institution should receive the grant;
CONFIDENTIAL