ние 18213
1 1 JUN1991
CRY
CONFIDENTIAL
HKD
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
73
31 May 1991
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London SW1A 2AH
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Hong Kong: HMG Involvement in Airport Funding
Your letter of 26 April 1991 about the airport project records discussion of a suggestion by Mrs Thatcher that the airport might be built under ATP arrangements. We have looked at this option, in accordance with the instructions in the penultimate paragraph of your letter.
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There are indeed overwhelming arguments against using ATP arrangements to finance the project. Government's policy is that ATP should be available only to developing countries which have a per capita GDP of less than US$3000 (at 1981 levels): Hong Kong greatly exceeds this. Further, under arrangements which are now being considered by the OECD, associated financing is likely to be ruled out for countries with a GDP income per head of US$2335 and new disciplines will be introduced for large projects. We hope that these new rules to be approved by the OECD Ministerial meeting on 4/5 June.
Furthermore our ATP budget is under severe pressure and it would be impossible to make any major new commitments in the near future. The total worldwide budget for this year is £97 million, which will increase to £112 million next year. The scale of the airport and associated projects several hundreds of millions of pounds - could not be accommodated, even though payment would be spread over a number of years.
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We do have to consider what our partners, particularly the Japanese, might do in this area. have been suggestions that the Japanese might offer aid
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