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and £400,000 FY 96/97. However the scheme STC proposed in his letter of 11 October looked to earmarking £250,000 in FY 95/96. If this is agreed, as we hope it will be,
as we hope it will be, the savings in FY 95/96 would be £450,000 and not £700,000. But there is another consideration, mentioned in the final sentence of paragraph 7 of Francis's letter of 11 October. We believe there is a good case for ring-fencing £600,000 from the existing £2.2 million FCOSAS programme for Hong Kong scholarships ie £250,000 for Management Centre-related scholarships and £350,000 for general scholarships, this latter sum to be matched by private sector donations to create a recurrent annual scholarship fund of £750,000.
The British Council is co-funding the initial building consultancy study now with a view to contributing towards the cost of a full financial appraisal. But they cannot risk embarking on the latter without FCO agreement in principle to allocate funds, initially to fit out the Centre and thereafter to meet a UK scholarship programme for the best of the graduates from the Centre (in other words a commitment to provide £250,000 from FY 95/96). We therefore hope that a decision can be taken in London on this soon.
Dim ever,
Jaes
J Smith-Laittan
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