§ Mr. Juddasked the Minister of Overseas Development what was the saving to the balance of payments of the recent cuts in overseas aid programmes.
§ Mr. BottomleyIn paragraph 61 of my White Paper Overseas Development: The Work in Hand (Cmnd. 3180) it was stated that it is estimated that any change in the size of the aid programme, which affected the different parts of it in equal proportions, would normally be reflected as to two thirds by a change in the exports of British goods and services, while the remainder of the change would have a direct effect on our foreign exchange reserves or our overseas liabilities. While it is not possible to calculate an exact figure it would be reasonable to suppose that if aid is reduced by £20 million a balance of payments saving of the order of £7 million may be expected.
§ Mr. Juddasked the Minister of Overseas Development by what criteria the distribution of overseas aid is determined.
§ Mr. BottomleyThe motives and objectives of the British aid programme are set out in Chapter 1 of Cmnd. 2736. We make our allocations primarily in order to help developing countries raise their living standards. While that is the main motive we recognise that donors and recipients share mutual benefits from aid programmes and we pursue these mutual benefits whenever they are consistent with the major objective.
§ Mr. Juddasked the Minister of Overseas Development on what criteria the recent cuts in overseas aid were made.
§ Mr. BottomleyThe reduction relates to the aid programme as a whole and the98W reasons for it were given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister in his statement of 20th July last—[Vol. 732, c 627–38.] In allocating the resources available for 1967–68 we are guided by the same criteria as would be applied to a programme at a somewhat higher or lower level. These criteria were described in Chapter 1 of Cmnd. 2736.
§ Mr. Molloyasked the Minister of Overseas Development what liaison exists between his Department and British trade unions for aiding developing countries; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. OramClose liaison is maintained with the T.U.C. on overseas aid in the Labour and Trade Union field, and in a number of related fields such as technical training. The T.U.C. is also represented on the Council for Technical Training and Education Overseas.