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course. I should be grateful to know whether the future of our cultural presence in Hong Kong has ever played a part in our discussions with the Chinese.
The Next Steps
5.
The Director-General reported, as expected, on The Next Steps, and concluded (as we have) that it is not likely, at least immediately, to have any impact on the relationship between the British Council and their sponsoring Departments. Mr Francis nevertheless thought that the concept behind The Next Steps needed to be looked at carefully, since it might offer greater flexibility on conditions of service for British Council staff, as well as having possible implications on annuality. A position paper will be prepared for the Board on the implications, with particular reference to performance bonuses. I said that we had ourselves some experience of operating performance bonuses in the Diplomatic Service and would be happy to share our experience with the Council.
Corporate Plan
6.
As mentioned above, I had to leave very early in this part of the discussion, and you will no doubt want to examine the record carefully, when it is circulated. Meanwhile, however, Mr Timothy Raison expressed some at the mechanism (or lack of it) for concerting priorities between the British Council on the one hand and the Diplomatic and Aid Wings on the other. I intervened briefly to explain our current attempts at least to synchronise the preparation of the Corporate Plan and our papers for the PESC Round.
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CC 2AAX
Patrick Wright
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