SOUTH AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT CO-ORDINATION CONFERENCE

HL Deb 02 August 1982 vol 434 c676WA

Lord Brockway

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is their response to the call by the 9-nation South African Development Co-ordination Conference, which met in Botswana on 22nd July, for greater international aid to help them end their economic dependence on the Republic of South Africa.

Lord Belstead

The British Government have already confirmed their full support for the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference and for its member countries in their search for greater economic integration through practical forms of regional cooperation. British aid to SADCC members is substantial, totalling some £111 million in 1981, and last year we committed an additional £10 million specifically to assist projects of a regional nature in the transport and communications sectors, to which SADCC attaches very high priority. We have participated in donor meetings with SADCC members in Maputo in 1980 and in Blantyre last year, and we will of course be represented at the next meeting which we understand is due to be held in Maseru in January 1983.