Aid and Trade (Hansard, 16 March 1994)

§ Mr. Worthington
To ask the President of the Board of Trade which aid and trade provision projects approved for Indonesia since 1979 could be used to support military activity; and what monitoring takes place of whether aid and trade provision projects are used to support Indonesian military activity.

§ Mr. Lennox-Boyd
I have been asked to reply. The majority of the aid and trade provision allocations in Indonesia have been for civil infrastructure, e.g. for electricity generation, railways development and the provision of bridging materials. We have also supported projects for a wide range of other purposes, e.g. coal mining and improvement of university science facilities. None of the projects we have supported is designed to support military activity and we have no indication that any have been so used. Frequent monitoring visits to assess progress in implementation and ex-post project evaluation visits have not indicated any evidence of military use.

§ Mr. Tom Clarke
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will publish the Government's best estimates of the number of jobs created within the United Kingdom as a direct result of support provided to projects in developing countries under the aid and trade provision in each of the last five years; and if he will explain the method by which these estimates have been reached.

§ Mr. Needham
Projects supported by ATP have created a significant number of United Kingdom jobs since the scheme's inception in 1977–78. The precise number is difficult to estimate. This information could be compiled only at disproportionate cost.

§ Mr. Worthington
To ask the President of the Board of Trade which British firms have benefited from aid and trade provision assistance; by how much; and for what projects in Malaysia and Indonesia in each year since 1979.

§ Mr. Needham
For a detailed list of all ATP projects, I refer the hon. Member to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary gave to the right hon. Member for Copeland (Dr. Cunningham) on 28 October 1993,Official Report, column 732.