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we will no longer be the sovereign power in Hong Kong, our economic stake in the region will be no less. The UK's commercial interests in Hong Kong are important and are expected to remain so in the future. Hong Kong is also a spring-board into the market of southern China, the major growth area of the region. Leading up to and after 1997 the UK has more interest than ever in cultivating potential players in the Hong Kong of post 1997. Hong Kong for its part, is keen to ensure that its highly valued links with the UK in this field are maintained. We should therefore attempt to maintain maximum flexibility in retaining this vital mechanism and improving it where possible. We do not believe that, as Hong Kong suggests, we should deploy all the savings from the phase out of the JFS to the UK/HK Scholarship Scheme (this, as you say, would clearly be disproportionate to our commitments to other areas in the world). However, we would like to see a reduced amount of the funding from the phased out JFS go towards Hong Kong scholarships of some sort. We might, as Hong Kong suggest, think of building on the existing Merit Scheme, or setting up an FCOSAS scheme. you agree, I would be grateful for your views on how we might go about this.
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We have already told the Hong Kong Government that the FCO attaches great importance to the Joint Funding Scheme and that it is certainly our intention to continue to contribute. I hope we will be able to provide the Executive Council with as positive a reply as possible; in spite of our tight budgetary restrictions. The Hong Kong Government are waiting to hear how we intend to respond to their proposals before making the Executive Council's decision public.
RS Moore
Hong Kong Department
23 March 1993
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