§ Mr. Juddasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will make a progress report on the extent of co-ordination of official aid and private investment; whether he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT details of the number of requests which have been received from private investors or other bodies for official aid to be co-ordinated with private investment; and how many of these requests were for co-ordination with their own private investment.
§ Mr. KershawThe Government are considering generally means of encouraging private investment in developing countries. One step already taken has been to advise the Confederation of British Industry that the Overseas Development Administration is prepared, at the request of a host Government, to consider providing capital assistance for basic infrastructure associated with particular private investment projects.
No requests have yet been received.
§ Mr. Juddasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will make a statement on the extent to which official aid co-ordinated with private investment will be tied to British goods and services.
§ Mr. KershawThe existing rules and procedures for the tying of British aid will also apply to this use of aid.
§ Mr. Juddasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether it is the policy of the Government to co-ordinate all bilateral official aid with private investment.
§ Mr KershawNo. Both have an important and often complementary part to play in economic development, but private investment decisions are for the investor.
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§ Mr. Juddasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT, country by country, the number of instances in which the co-ordination of official aid with private investment is at the request of the recipient country.
§ Mr. KershawMuch of the capital aid we provide for infrastructure projects helps the private sector, but I could not list the cases in which the Governments of developing countries have co-ordinated their requests for aid with particular plans for private investment.
§ Mr. Juddasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in which countries the Government plans to concentrate the major part of official aid which is co-ordinated with private investment.
§ Mr. KershawNo such concentration is planned. The Government will consider on their merits proposals for the association of official aid with private investment.
§ Mr. Juddasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will make a statement on the priority areas for increased expenditure as the overseas aid programme expands.
§ Mr. KershawWe continue to give priority to the reasonable needs of the remaining Dependencies and to technical assistance. Multilateral aid is being increased, mainly through the Third I.D.A. Replenishment and more funds will be made available to the Commonwealth Development Corporation, which is proposing to invest in some countries outside the Commonwealth. Commonwealth countries will continue to attract the bulk of our bilateral aid, but we intend to build up more programmes in foreign countries, including both South-East Asia and Latin America. We have undertaken fresh pension obligations.