§ Mr. ThurnhamTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what provision the Government is making to provide money following the Prime Minister's announcement of the creation of a "know how" fund for Poland.
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§ Mr. WaldegraveThe £ 25 million as announced by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is to be given over a period of five years. We estimate that the immediate costs of providing the type of training and advice the know how fund was created for will be £ 1.3 million. Parliamentary approval for these services will be sought in a supplementary supply estimate for the vote for other external relations (class II, vote 2). Pending that approval, urgent expenditure of £ 1.3 million is to be met by a repayable advance from the Contingencies Fund.
The know how fund is now getting into full swing, with more than 40 projects agreed or in the pipeline. These range from a seminar for Parliamentarians and training attachments for journalists to a conference on privatisation and a series of management training projects. At the same time the ground work is being laid for more wide-ranging assistance in the banking, financial services and industrial sectors. We believe that assistance of this kind will play a crucial role in the development of democracy and a market economy in Poland.