HC Deb 11 December 1972 vol 848 cc25-7
31. Mr. Judd

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will make a statement clarifying the policy of Her Majesty's Government towards the rôle of official aid in fulfilling the 1 per cent. of gross national product overseas aid target.

Mr. Wood

I have frequently expressed the Government's view that official development assistance should form a substantial part of the total flow of public and private resources to developing countries.

Mr. Judd

Does not the right hon. Gentleman agree that the Government have steadfastly refused to accept the target of 0.7 per cent. of GNP for official aid, and that it is increasingly questionable whether private investment, on which the Government place considerable em- phasis as a form of aid, can be regarded as development assistance at all, because what makes private investment tick is a handsome and certain return on the investment rather than the urgent priorities of developing countries? When shall we accept the 0.7 per cent. target?

Mr. Wood

The hon. Gentleman has so phrased his Question that he himself accepts that private investment plays a part in the overseas aid target of 1 per cent. of GNP. But that is the target to which we have subscribed. We have never subscribed to an official target. We believe that attempts to subscribe to an official target without attaching a date are so meaningless as to be without value.

Mr. Crouch

Does not my right hon. Friend agree, however, that there was a good point in the Pearson Report saying that not only should there be a 1 per cent. overall target but that there was a real need for a 0.7 per cent. target for official aid to provide the infrastructure without which the commercial aid has no purpose?

Mr. Wood

That is why we have always taken the view I expressed in my original answer that official development assistance should provide a substantial part. But we have never committed ourselves to a target of 0.7 per cent. or any other within the 1 per cent. target.

Mr. George Cunningham

As we already knew that the Government had not committed themselves to a 0.7 per cent. target, will the right hon. Gentleman say why not? If he is worried about our committing ourselves to such a target without putting a date to it, why not do so and put a date to it?

Mr. Wood

I want to commit myself to targets only when I am sure of reaching them. I see no point in committing myself to that target, which I do not believe we should reach. That is why we have not done it.

Mr. Pavitt

In view of our difficulty in assessing precisely what component parts make up the Lester Pearson 1 per cent. and of how we compare with other countries, may I ask what action the right hon. Gentleman is taking to implement the recommendation of the Select Committee on reaching agreement with all countries on what should constitute the comparable standard of the amount of aid being given?

Mr. Wood

These matters are discussed in the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD. There is general agreement there about what should or should not count towards the 1 per cent. target.

Mrs. Hart

Is the right hon. Gentleman determined to be completely adamant about the matter? Is he happy, and is his right hon. Friend the Prime Minister happy, to find that apart from the United States, where the problem is that Congress will not vote the money for an increase in official aid, the United Kingdom is now the odd man out among all developed countries, including those of the European Economic Community and those of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD?

Mr. Wood

No, Sir. No major donor has undertaken with a date attached—which is all that would make it meaningful—the achievement of a 0.7 per cent. target. I question the right hon. Lady's wisdom in pressing the matter very hard in view of the performance of her own Government a few years ago.

Mrs. Hart

For the sake of the record, will the right hon. Gentleman correct his statement? There are at least two member countries of the Development Assistance Committee which not only have accepted the 0.7 per cent. official aid target but have undertaken to reach it by 1975 or earlier.

Mr. Wood

I said that there were no major donors which had accepted the 0.7 per cent. target and attached a date to it. I stand by that statement.