BRITISH NATIONALITY SCHEME
ANNEX D
In a recent newspaper article in Hong Kong (copy attached) Emily
Lau has complained inter alia about the length of time it is
taking to implement the Scheme and has claimed that overall far
fewer people will benefit from the Scheme than was originally
estimated.
Tardiness
Didn't mana je this.
It is difficult to understand why Ms Lau makes her complaint at
this stage in the operation. The Hong Kong Government announced
publicly [in 1990 ?] that its target was to complete the first
tranche of 39,500 Principal Beneficiaries by the end of 1993
(20,000 of them by the end of 1992). The Scheme is on target and
there are no significant problems.
There is agreement at official level between the Home Office,
Foreign Office and the Hong Kong Government that the second
tranche will start at the beginning of 1994 and it is proposed
to make an announcement to that effect in the coming months.
This will be the last tranche and it will allocate the remaining
10,500 Principal Beneficiary places. We expect the Scheme to
have finished by the autumn of 1995.