HC Deb 23 March 1967 vol 743 cc307-8W
Mr. Dalyell

asked the Minister of Overseas Development if he will give details of the recent £1 million of assistance to Indonesia.

Mr. Bottomley

The offer of a grant of £1 million for emergency aid to Indonesia was announced by my right hon. Friend, the Foreign Secretary's predecessor, now First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, in a statement to the House on 29th April, 1966.

The Indonesian Government itself drew up a list of requirements comprising the following commodities:

Nominal Total Cost £
(1) Department of People's Industries—raw materials for toothpaste, tanning, food, glass and paint industries, and marking materials 71,000
(2) Ministry of Agriculture—Plant Protection Products 179,012
(3) Ministry of Agriculture—Tea Manufacturing Equipment 18,000
(4) Ministry of Textile Industries—dye stuffs and chemicals/auxiliaries 357,143
(5) Ministry of Textile Industries—grey cotton shirting 124,642
(6) Ministry of Textile Industries—machine/spare parts 125,000
(7) Ministry of Health—Pharmaceutical Supplies 61,000
(8) State Electricity Enterprise—Material 28,000
(9) Department of Land Communication—Ford spare parts—Dodge Kew truck parts—Tyres—Train Lighting Set 35,850
Total 999,647

Actual shipments under the grant commenced only in December and January last, this rather slow beginning being largely due to the initial difficulty of obtaining precise information about the items requested. Nevertheless, by the end of February nearly one half of the goods had already been shipped or were in course of shipment. My Hon. Friend may have seen the references in the Press recently about the arrival in Djakarta of the first shipments of British goods under the grant.—[Vol. 727: c. 1111.]