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From: V Heard
Room V537
Ext 0171
Date: 11 May 1993
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OECD: DAC LIST: HONG KONG
are off the list,
GTN 3:35
Mr Manning Mr Chakrabarti Mr Seaton Mr Davis, FED Mr Rickets, HKD
Mr Tebbitt, ERD
Hue col de a problem with Wk
You may already be aware that the High Level Meeting of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) last December commissioned a review of the DAC list. Whichever way the review goes, it is likely to result in Hong Kong leaving the list.
2 The list was originally used for statistical purposes and only aid to countries on the list is recorded by the DAC as counting towards donor countries' total aid flows. The list has developed without any real criteria for inclusion and now, apart few countries (eg Spain) which have been removed at their own request, it consists of all countries that have ever received aid or have asked to be on it. However, it has also acquired status as a list of countries deserving aid and the High Level Meeting's decision to commission a review, prompted in part by requests for inclusion of FSU countries, aims at establishing rational criteria for a poverty-focused list.
3.
At the time the review was commissioned five of the richest countries were deleted (including Singapore and Brunei) and five Asian republics of the FSU were added. Papers recently circulated by the DAC Secretariat suggest an upper per capita income limit for the list which would admit Lower Middle Income Countries (LMICS) but exclude Upper Middle Income Countries (UMICS). There was some debate at a recent DAC meeting over whether some UMICS would be admitted under special circumstances. However, Hong Kong, as a Higher Income Country, is in the income category above this and should be expected to be removed from the list along with Saudi Arabia, Greece and the Bahamas, among others.
4. In practical terms, the effect of this on Hong Kong should be negligible. It is not a major aid recipient and does not need to be on the list to receive aid in any case some of the eastern Europeans have received substantial aid from bilateral and multilateral donors without being on the list. Most of Hong