Supplementary memorandum submitted by
China-Britain Business Council
At the lunch hosted by the China-Britain Business
Council (CBBC) for members of the Foreign Affairs Committee on
14 June 2000, the Chairman of the Committee asked me to update
the Committee on the status of the Government's annual grant-in-aid
to the China-Britain Business Council. The position is as follows:
In the financial year 1998-99 the DTI increased
its annual grant-in-aid to CBBC to £662,000. In the financial
year 1999-2000 British Trade International's grant-in-aid was
set at £650,000. These grants were made following implementation
of government recommendations to enhance CBBC's operations to
meet government's demands for delivery to trade services to China,
which it designated a priority market in 1997-98.
CBBC's budget for the current financial year,
2000-01 called for a grant-in-aid of £670,000 which as for
the previous two years equals approximately one third of CBBC's
total expenditure. In May of this financial year Trade Partners
UK informed CBBC that grant-in-aid would be cut to £500,000
(a reduction of 23 per cent on the previous year).
As CBBC's expenditure is predominately to cover
staff and premises we have made strong representation that such
a cut would be impossible to manage consistent with delivery of
the services required by both government and business in China.
It is incompatible for Government to designate China a priority
market and, quite rightly, demand a higher level of service from
CBBC and then cut back its grant-in-aid.
We are discussing urgently with Trade Partners
UK how they propose to resolve this serious problem.
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