§ 51. Mr. Tim Rentonasked the Minister of Overseas Development what steps her Ministry is taking to allay the provision of overseas aid more closely with the development of British trade.
4W
§ Mrs. HartMy Department works closely with other Departments in Whitehall to obtain the maximum benefit for our trade and industries that is consistent with the aid strategy set out in the 1975 White Paper "More Help for the Poorest". As I informed the hon. Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke) on 12th January, we also decided last year to allow a small proportion of the bilateral aid programme—around 5 per cent.—to be available to give higher priority to the commercial importance of a limited number of developmentally sound projects we identify in developing countries for which there is no aid allocation available or where the allocation is already fully committed.