ifl.rb/Oct '93/22.10.1
Timing
RESTRICTED
we will instruct Mr Peretz to finalise the agreements
with the Fund/Bank;
you
will need in due course to write to the Fund/Bank
supporting the invitation;
we will probably have to lay a Treasury/ODA Minute
notifying Parliament of the liability.
4.
We need your agreement to proceed along these lines urgently
as the Fund/Bank are pressing us to finalise the documentation. A
Treasury minute would probably not need to be laid for another two
months.
Detail
5. As forewarned in my submission of 27 July, arrangements with
the Fund/Bank have been bedevilled by UK and Chinese sensitivities
over the question of Hong Kong's autonomy. Hong Kong is not a
Member of the Fund/Bank in its own right; from the institutions
view it is simply a part of the UK, which is the member. We have
sought to ensure that as far as possible, the necessary assurances
and agreements on the provision of the services, immunities etc in
the period up to 1 July 1997 will be signed by the Hong Kong
authorities not the
UK.
The
Fund/Bank
and the Chinese
have
resisted this.