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37
Marr Sanday My Margy I agree.
We need
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Nomissie lo Mr foodlook
dfl repin to Join Chen.
G. discurr format.
16/
This strafagy
seems sensible. We cannot expect
& preserve current Carls of funding for the in present financial cirmmstances. But let's try
bring forward the insolementation of the new Wels scheme by one year & avoid the gap.
ссвете
Ms Saunders Mr Ricketts
UK/HONG KONG SCHOLARSHIPS: FUTURE OF THE JOINT FUNDING SCHEME
1.
We have now received a reply from CRD to our request that the Joint Funding Scheme be phased out from 1994/95
(and not 1993/94 as CRD originally suggested) and that a reduced amount of the funding from the phased out JFS should go towards some sort of scholarship scheme for Hong Kong.
2. CRD have offered the following:
agreement to the phasing out of the JFS from 1994/5 to be completed by 1996/7 ie the final year of funding would be 1995/6;
the run-down in 1994/5 to produce savings of at least £0.5 million to be redeployed to FCOSAS activity outside Hong Kong;
continued HMG support for UK/HK Merit Scholarships Scheme at current levels ie. £40,000 from the FCOSAS plus S K Tang funding;
1997/8 (or possibly 1996/7) introduction of a specific FCOSAS programme for Hong Kong students worth £0.5 million;
PHASE-OUT OF THE JFS
3. Given the present restrictions being placed on resources I do not believe we will get a better offer from CRD regarding the phase-out of the Joint Funding Scheme and that in general we should accept the above proposals. Assuming that ExCo's decision to phase-out their contribution from 1994/5 is based on the proposals put to them in February, the figures in CRD's estimates of future expenditure are largely on a par with those of Hong Kong.
FUTURE SCHOLARSHIP SCHEMES FOR HONG KONG
4.
The Diplomatic Wing scholarships budget is clearly under a lot of pressure due to cuts in resources. Hong Kong is currently top of the list of UK scholarship fund recipients on £2,240,000 per annum. CRD's proposal to cut this funding to £540,000 per annum represents a substantial cutback ( China will continue to receive £1,130,000 per annum). However, given the financial constraints that the budget is under, I believe that realistically we have little bargaining power left and that we should accept CRD's proposals. I am inclined to favour CRD's more targetted suggestion of setting
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RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
10 MAY 1993
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