TNAG-2877-FCO40-4149-Future-of-Hong-Kong-adaptation-of-laws-1993 — Page 38

GOVERMENT HOUSE HONG KONG.

FRI 12 NOV 93 08:21

PG.09

CONFIDENTIAL

2

by the Minister of

Overseas

Development.

responsible to give them

give them direction,

Parliament.

nor

But no Minister was

were they responsible to

4.

Meanwhile the Crown Agents had Fun into financial

difficulties, and the British Government had to make them grants

totalling about $175 million. As a result, the Crown Agents were

formally incorporated as a statutory body under the Crown Agents Act

1970. Under the Act, their financial activities are subject to

Treasury Control and directions by the Minister of Overseas

Development, and their annual reports are laid before each House of

Parliament.

5.

A: Member of Parliament, Mr. Richard Luce, has pointed out

that for nearly 150 years, the Crown Agents have expanded and

extended their range of services in the financial, professional,

technical and commercial fields, and that they provide such services

to several British dependencies and

to a number of independent

Governments, most of them, if not all, members of the Commonwealth.

He concludes that there is по other organization in the Western

world equivalent to the organization that has grown up in the form

of the Crown Agents.

HONG KONG ́S POSITION

6.

Kong

The term "Crown Agents" is given statutory meaning in Hong

as the persons or body for the time being acting as Crown

Agents

for Oversea

Governments

and Administrations

see Cap. 1