20-03-1990
16:21
CS0 D4
01 217 4214
P.03
Rt Hon Michael Heseltine MP
House of Commons
London SW1
1. Thank you for your letter of 5 March and the attachments
which question the reply to your PQ on 20 February on the value
of UK assets in Hong Kong.
2. Of course I accept that I was only able to give a partial
estimate of the UK's total assets in Hong Kong. This was made
absolutely clear in the answer. In particular, as the
correspondence notes, the available figures relate to the bock
value rather than to the market value of direct investment; and
we have no estimate of UK portfolio investment in Hong Kong
(though this could be substantial). I do not however accept that
there was anything inaccurate, irrelevant or methodologically
incorrect in the information I gave.
3. The figure of the book value of UK direct investment was based
on information supplied by companies under statute for the Census
of Overseas Assets 1987. This triennial survey was conducted by
the Statistics Division of the Department of Trade and Industry
but, following the reorganisation of government statistics last
year, is now the responsibility of the Central Statistical
office.
4. I am enclosing a copy of the article which announced the
results of this survey and which was published in British
Business last September. This gives details on how the figures
are compiled. In particular I would highlight:
i the figures relate to the book value of overseas