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British citizenship by five years residence, with up to
three of the five years being spent in Hong Kong rather than
the UK.
3. HKG's proposed allocation of the 50,000 places between these four component schemes, and the intended balance between those
which will be
be allocated in response to the
the first round of
applications and those which will be held back for later
•
below, we believe that
distribution, are set out in Annex A. Subject to decisions on
the matters raised in paragraphs these figures can be approved.
The selection process
4.
A good deal of work has been done on the selection process
although a number of detailed points remain to be worked through.
The paper at Annex B outlines the mechanisms envisaged for each
of the selection schemes (those for the disciplined services are
still subject to discussion of the details between HKG and the
heads of the services concerned). The following paragraphs raise
aspects of the proposals which Ministers will particularly wish
to consider.
The General Allocation Scheme
(a) Occupational groups
The places available under this scheme will be distributed
by occupational groups, with priority going to those groups
which have high emigration rates and where lost personnel
are difficult to replace because of the amount of training
involved. However, HKG argue strongly that no occupational
groups should be excluded altogether from the scheme, as
that would be divisive and politically very difficult in
Hong Kong.
In view of the desirability of avoiding
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