HC Deb 24 October 1988 vol 139 c47W
108. Mr. Ashby

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his Department is doing to encourage private aid flows to developing countries.

Mr. Chris Patten

The Government help the voluntary sector in four principal ways:

  1. 1. By changes in tax concessions aimed at encouraging charitable donations;
  2. 2. Through matching, under the joint funding scheme, the cost of agreed long-term development projects mounted by British voluntary agencies;
  3. 3. By providing substantial grants to the volunteer recruitment agencies on the condition that the agencies themselves meet pre-agreed fund-raising targets; and
  4. 4. By making immediate and substantial contributions to appeals launched by the Disasters Emergency Committee.

In addition, the Government have helped through the abolition of exchange controls and in other ways to promote substantial flows of United Kingdom private investment to the developing countries.

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