§ Mr. Bishopasked the Minister of Overseas Development what discussion she is having about the provision of aid for employment and industrial and economic stability in the Persian Gulf and South-East Asia after withdrawal of the British military presence in 1971; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mrs. HartAs regards the Persian Gulf, the British Middle East Development Division recently undertook an economic survey of the Northern Trucial States and made recommendations for the future development of the area over the next five years, which we hope will commend themselves as a framework for economic stability. To help overcome a shortage of technical skills, we have con-68W tributed to the capital costs and provided staff for the establishment of a Gulf Technical College in Bahrain to serve the needs of the area for secondary technical education.
As regards Malaysia and Singapore, we have provided £25 million to the former and £50 million to the latter as special aid, to help offset the economic effects of the military withdrawal, to be spread over at least five years. A number of industrial and technical training projects are already in course of implementation in both countries.