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When I had my first meeting with, as it was then, University and Polytechnics Grant Committee in 1992, in September, they emphasised to me very strongly that they thought we weren't spending, in Hong Kong, enough on research. They thought it was going to make it more difficult, for example, for us to provide our own university teachers in the future if we didn't have enough research programmes now. And, of course, they were also concerned to see departments strengthened in universities by the development of a research capacity, as well as the economic impact, the economic knock-on for Hong Kong. So we began at that stage, when Andrew Li was still Chairman of the UPGC and it has gone on under Anthony Leung, we began the huge expansion of research spending which has now gone up to, I think, about $272 million a year- that's an increase of about 130% - and I think that has been welcomed and justified. People have occasionally asked whether there were enough decent research projects coming forward but I think there are. I think that previously, very often people with a good research idea weren't bothering to apply because they didn't think there was much chance of the funds being available. But that's been one of our priorities in the tertiary sector to date.
If I may say so, I think in the longer term, long after Chris Patten has departed on 30 June 1997 - just to confirm I remember the date - I think one of the big debates in Hong Kong will be about unit costs in the tertiary sector and the fee structure for students. But that, I think, will come probably a good deal after I have departed.
Question: Governor, you said in your address that the intention of the Civil Service get-togethers was for Chinese officials to get a better appreciation of the work done by our heads of branches and departments. Do you think these get-togethers will be best served by China's decision to field officials from the Ministry of State Security to interview these officials?
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Governor: We don't know who the Chinese side are going to include among those officials that they introduce to our own. The arrangements that we put forward, which have by and large been accepted by the Chinese side, are a considerable improvement - I won't say any more than that on those that were originally advanced and I think are a mark of the greater understanding of the position in Hong Kong and of the more co-operative atmosphere which has developed here in Hong Kong. But it is not for me to choose the members of the Chinese side. I'm sure that the Chinese side will take account of the fact that one of the principal purposes of these meetings is to raise the morale of Hong Kong civil servants and to give them comfort about the future, rather than to make them nervous about the future.