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D J Jones Esq
Deputy Economic Secretary
HONG KONG
HKK 5/12
1 December 1972
AID
As you will know from Mr Royle's announcement ODA have committed two substantial sums of money for Technical Assistance projects in Hong Kong. These are £500,000 for provision of equipment and books for the Polytechnic and 400,000 for technical institutes of which 100,000 have been earmarked, with the Governor's assent, for Morrison Hill.
2. This is a preliminary nuts and bolts letter so that we and the ODA may have an idea of the likely disbursements of these funds. ODA are particularly interested in this for planning purposes. I have not seen any text of Mr Royle's statement and do not know the extent of the detail he went into, but I should make clear that to ensure spending is spread fairly evenly over the next few years, ODA have stipulated that money should not be spent in the same financial year (1 April 31 March) for both the Polytechnic and the technical institutes.
3. Your original bid (see Haddon-Cave's letter, CCR13/951/6811 of 17 August) asked for just under £ million for the Polytechnic, Disburse- of which £1 million approximately was for the building. ment was to begin in 1973/1974, mostly on construction but including a proposed sum of approximately £64,000 on books and journals. As our aid does not include money for the actual construction of the library, we need to know whether the timetable for the construction will be met and whether there will be a requirement for these books in the 1973/1974 financial year.
4. What is the position over Morrison Hill and the other technical institutes? As far as we can tell from our papers, Morrison Hill is complete and it should be possible for us to use our aid commit- ment soon in the provision of equipment. This could be started in 1972/1973 and probably continued into 1973/1974 if - as I expect there is insufficient time for you to submit the necessary particulars in time for expenditure before next April. since Morrison Hill (correct me if I am wrong) is so much more ahead as far as construction is concerned than the Polytechnic and the other technical institute construction programmes, I myself would think it sensible to concentrate on Morrison Hill first and complete
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