∞
In confidence
Financial forecast for Eastern Europe
All figures in £ million
Income
ODA agency
FCO agency
Other agency
Revenue
Government grants
Total
Expenditure
Staff and running costs
Eastern Europe
Staff and running costs UK British Council programmes Agency (rounded) Total
ser
is 1
in
cel
1990/91
1991/92
1992/93
1993/94
es
re
0
0
0
0
7.
0
1
1
1
fu
1
4
5
6
19
1
2
2
2
ne
12
12
11
11
in
14
19
19
20
W
p:
W
a
1
14
100 LO LO CO
3759
256 —
3
5
5
4
19
6
3 LO LOT
b
5
S
5
n
7
19
20
t
I
Table 2
The Council is deeply committed to this work; its long experience in the region and its proven capacity in project management equip it for the task. The general focus is predominantly on exchanges and information work, with the aim of assisting and influencing political and intellectual change through the provision of access to information, ideas, institutions and people. Increasingly this work is taking place outside the restrictions of the government-to- government cultural exchange programmes (CXPs). The recent pace and degree of change in Eastern Europe confirm that the Council's plans for a major expansion of effort throughout the region, as outlined in CP2, were appropriate. As that pace accelerates and conditions for genuine cultural relations flourish, the Council will commensurately increase and diversify its input. With programme activity increasing so rapidly, the Council plans to strengthen staffing in Eastern Europe between 1990/91 and 1993/94: up to ten London-based and thirty local staff.
7.4 With the aim of maximizing the visibility, impact and availability of British expertise, the Council's principal objectives for the region are: ⚫ to manage a portfolio of agency-funded projects at least equal in value to the Council's grant- funded activities in the region
• to open English language teaching centres
• to establish cultural centres in locations
separate from embassy premises
• to double 1989/90 levels of private-sector sponsorship of Council activity
• to achieve decisive involvement in the selection of all Council-financed visitors to Britain.
7.5 Opportunity and scope will vary from country to country. The pace of democratic reform, on which receptivity to western influence will depend, is extremely difficult to forecast. The scale of potential in the Soviet Union, Gorbachev's seminal role in influencing change in Eastern Europe, and the country's international, political, trade and geographical importance give it continuing priority in Council planning. The Council's order of priorities thereafter is Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, GDR, Bulgaria and Romania. Yugoslavia takes slightly lower priority because the Council's operations there start from a higher base, not having suffered restriction to the same degree as in other Eastern European countries. Some reductions will be made to Yugoslavia's budget from 1990/91, without damage to the achievement of Council objectives, to fund higher priorities elsewhere.
7.6 An additional £0.8 million allocated to the Soviet Union in 1989/90 achieved:
• 120 short visits outside the cultural exchange programmes over and above those within
• 30 new institute-to-institute links
• 100 Soviet managers trained in Britain, co- financed with the private sector
• British training for 100 Soviet specialists in
previously restricted subject areas, including sociology and agricultural research.
Additionally, negotiations have opened for
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