§ Mr. Corbynasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the projects for which loans were sought from the World Bank by El Salvador, Nicaragua and Grenada during each of the last five years; what was the outcome in each case; and how Her Majesty's Government instructed their representative on the World Bank executive board to vote on each application.
§ Mr. WhitneyDuring the period July 1978 to June 1983 the following projects were submitted to the executive board of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association:
El Salvador
1978–79*
Fourth Educational Project (IBRD)
Nicaragua
1979–80
Agricultural and industrial rehabilitation project (IBRD)
Agricultural and industrial rehabilitation project (IDA)
Urban reconstruction (IDA)
1980–81
Industrial rehabilitation credit (IBRD)
Managua water supply engineering project‡ (IBRD)
Non project: preinvestment funds (IDA)
1981–82
Municipal development project (IBRD)
Grenada
No projects were submitted for Grenada
All these loans/credits were approved.
It is not our policy to disclose the nature of instructions to our representative on the IBRD/IDA executive board.
* World Bank financial Years (June to July).
† The Nicaraguan Government acted as guarantor on this loan to the Instituto Nicaraguense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados.
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§ Mr. Corbynasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the Government support the World Bank's current policy of freezing all loans to Nicaragua.
§ Mr. WhitneyThe World Bank has no policy of freezing loans to Nicaragua. All loan proposals are considered individually by the executive board according to economic and technical criteria, including the likelihood of the projects involved being completed successfully.