TNAG-1173-FCO40-1465-Future-of-Hong-Kong-special-study-by-FCO-for-the-Prime-Minis-1982 — Page 190

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Bank)

for which responsibility for one's own external

relations is a condition of membership

but is a member of

the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for which it qualifies

by virtue of being an associate member of the UN Economic

and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Because Hong Kong is not responsible for its external

relations, its membership of the ADB is conditional on HMG

assuming responsibility for all its obligations to the

Bank, including financial guarantees on project loans and

capital (on-call) subscriptions to capital stock. Guarantees

Hong

of loans and callable capital are authorised under Section 7

of the Overseas Development and Co-operation Act 1980 within

a present limit variable by Statutory Order of £90 million.

This limit may soon need to be increased (see below).

Kong is currently in receipt of four loans from the ADB,

worth a total of US$72.2 million; in addition there is

currently a contingent liability in respect of callable

capital of US$45.7 million. A General Capital Increase (GCI)

is presently under discussion at the ADB, which would

increase this contingent liability (possibly by up to

US$60 million).

ECGD Exposure

12.

ECGD's current commitments in Hong Kong amount to about

$3 billion. They do not expect to be able to scale down

this figure during the period up to 1997

indeed, commitments

/are

8 -

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