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Our Ref : S3/9C
23 April 1999
The Chief Executive
All Authorised Institutions
Dear Sir / Madam,
Balance of Payments (BoP) Account for Hong Kong
The HKSAR Government has launched a new survey entitled the Survey
of External Claims, Liabilities and Income (SECLI) to collect data for
compiling the full BoP account for the HKSAR. I am writing to appeal
for the support and co-operation from your institution if you are required
to provide information in the SECLI. This is essential to the success
of the Survey and hence the compilation of BoP statistics for the HKSAR.
The BoP account provides information on the external transactions of
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. For some years, there has been
growing pressure and expectations for Hong Kong to compile a complete
BoP account. This information is of particular importance in economic
and financial analyses which I am sure your institution will also find
useful. Through a formal subscription to the International Monetary
Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard, Hong Kong has made a firm
commitment to the international financial community to compile the BoP
statistics required. The SECLI is a major step towards fulfilling this
commitment.
The SECLI is conducted by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD)
under the Census and Statistics Ordinance (Chapter 316). According to
the Ordinance, information provided by individual respondents to the
Department will be treated as strictly confidential. The data collected
from the Survey will be used for statistical purposes only.
I understand that in devising the questionnaires for the SECLI, C&SD
has consulted widely in order to minimise the reporting burden on prospective
respondents. Pre-survey and consultative visits have been made to over
300 authorized institutions in the past few months. The C&SD has
indicated to us that institutions which are to be included in the survey
will be able to provide the required information.
I would thank you for your cooperation in advance.
Yours faithfully,
D T R Carse
Deputy Chief Executive
cc The Hong Kong Association of Banks
The Deposit-taking Companies Association
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