TNAG-2765-FCO40-3982-UK-Hong-Kong-Scholarship-Scheme-donation-to-the-UK-Governme-1993 — Page 5

20 December 1993

BY FAX:

RF Cornish

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Senior British Trade Commissioner British Trade Commission

HONG KONG

ٹی

Scholarships

Foreign & Commonwealth

Office

99

„Landon SWIA 2AH

нив

Hub 285/ Telephone: 071-

REST

Y

IN..

Dan Francis,

BRITISH COUNCIL: MANAGEMENT TRAINING CENTRE IN HONG KONG

1.

I read with interest your account of the work being done by the British Council on their planned Management Training Centre (MTC) in your letter to me of 11 October. I have since also seen James Smith-Laittan's letter to John Morris of 5 November containing a slightly more detailed (but still very sketchy) proposal from the British Council on how they see the role of HMG in the future running of the MTC.

2.

am sorry that it has taken us so long to respond, but we wanted to consider your ideas carefully. We start from the same position as you: we want to make the best use of our available scholarship funds, in a way which promotes our interests and maintains as far as possible the goodwill and good contacts built up in Hong Kong over the years by our hitherto extensive involvement in scholarships.

3. I agree that the idea of an MTC as a flagship for British further education in Hong Kong post-1997 has potential. But the information we have about the project so far does not tell us a lot. I think that the next step for us in assessing the project's viability and suitability as a vehicle for a large slice of our FCOSAS funds by the end of the decade is to discuss the concept with the British Council in London. We have copied them the correspondence and will discuss it with them in the New

Year.

If 4. In the meantime, we had the following initial thoughts. you wanted to let us have any further comments at this stage, we would be happy to have them.

I am struck by the ambitious time-frame for getting the Centre up and running with the first scholars in situ. Bearing in mind that the British Council have not yet made a financial appraisal and construction work has not begun, I am not convinced that it would be realistic to think about starting a scholarship scheme in the MTC in FY1996/7.

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