Mr. Gilmourasked the Secretary for Technical Co-operation if, following his recent visit to South-East Asia, he will make a statement on the scale and nature of his Department's programme of technical assistance in that area.
§ Mr. R. CarrOur technical assistance under the Colombo Plan and other schemes to South-East Asia, including the Indian Sub-Continent, will amount this year to over million, an increase of more than 20 per cent. on last year. Half of this goes towards the cost of providing about 1,100 British experts of all sorts. Nearly 20 per cent. is spent on training students from the area in the United Kingdom, of whom there are 12,000 in all. Most of the balance goes on equipment.
§ Mr. CarrI came back from my recent tour there most impressed by the value of the present type of British aid and I hope to see this steadily increasing, but I also think we should try, and I hope we shall be able, to keep going a few larger single projects, of which a notable example is the Delhi Institute of Technology, to which we are now giving very substantial help.