TNAG-2077-FCO40-2957-Hong-Kong-culture-1990 — Page 179

CODE 18-77

M19AAR

Reference...

C. Hong Kong University of Science & Technology : The funds required are relatively large (£5.25m in 1991/92) and it is unlikely that the Treasury would agree a bid outside the 1990 PES. We should, therefore, seek additional funding for the British Council in the 1990 PES for 1991/92 and beyond. If this bid were successful, the project could be announced in Autumn 1990.

The PUS's submission of 12 March on the 1990 Diplomatic Wing PES bid noted the British Council's opening bid of a £13 million per annum increase in its programme expenditure, including a provisional figure of £2.5m for English Language Teaching in Hong Kong. If all three options endorsed above were agreed, the additional cost in 1991/92 would be £6.85m and a further £4.35m would need to be added to the British Council bid, bringing it up to £17.35m in 1991/92. The PUS's submission recommended (paragrah 16) that even a bid of £13 million pa would be very ambitious and would almost certainly be substantially scaled down during negotiations with the Treasury. (There is, indeed, no guarantee that any additional funds can be secured for the British Council.) It is unlikely that the British Council would wish to devote all or most of the funds from an only partially successful PES bid to Hong Kong. If Ministers wished the Hong Kong projects to take priority, it may be necessary, in informing the British Council in the Autumn of the outcome of the 1990 PES round, to make clear that a specified sum is for the agreed new programmes in Hong Kong."

14 March 1990

Meike Clams

M C Clements

سعود

Resource Management Department

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