Lord Chelwoodasked Her Majesty's Government:
What was the gross and net disbursement of non-military aid from the Soviet Union and the other members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (shown as one) to non-member countries, showing Laos, Cambodia and Afghanistan separately and all other developing countries as one, in 1983, and how the last figure compares with gross and net Western aid, public and private, to all developing countries in the same year.
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Young)Our information on the levels of Western aid expenditure comes from the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD to which the United Kingdom and other Western donors belong. Members of the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance are not members of the Development Assistance Committee and are not under the same obligation to report their expenditure. Consequently, our information about it is based on estimates and is incomplete. In particular, we do not know how much they spend separately on Laos, Cambodia and Afghanistan.
The figures given below were obtained using the same methodology as in Soviet, East European and Western Development Aid 1976–82, Foreign Policy Document No. 84, published in May 1983 by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
673WA
1983 (US $ million) Gross Aid Disbursements Group I Countries Member Countries Non-Member Countries Cuba Vietnam Mongolia Laos Cambodia Afghanistan Group II Countries Other Non-Member Countries Total CMEA of which: 690 (£455m) 1,205 (£794m) 630 (£415m) 47(£31m) 124(£82m) 331 (£218m) 391 (258m) USSR 500(£330m) 1,025 (£676m) 620 (£409m) 38 (£25m) 110(£73m) 312 (£206m) 312(£206m) Eastern Europe 190(£125m) 180 (£119m) 10(£6.6m) 9 (£6m) 14(£9m) 19(£12.5m) 79 (£52m) Net Aid Disbursements Group I Countries(1) Group II Countries Total CMEA of which: 2,946 (£1, 942m) −197 (£− 130m) USSR 2,524 (£1,664m) −99(£ −65.3m) Eastern Europe 422 (£2 78m) −98 (£ −64.7m) (1) Net disbursements to individual Group I countries cannot be shown as comprehensive information on loan repayments is not available. Gross Aid Disbursements to Developing Countries Net Aid Disbursements to Developing Countries Private Flows to Developing Countries Voluntary Grants to Developing Countries DAC Member Countries 29,020 (£19,130m) 27,464 (£18,104m) 34,671 (£22,855m) 2,344 (£1,545m) DAC member countries are as follows: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States. (US $1 equivalent to £.6592)