§ Lord Ponsonby of Shulbredeasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress has been made in concluding the Country Policy Plan for Montserrat. [HL453]
§ Baroness AmosThe Country Policy Plan (CPP) negotiations took place on Montserrat between 16 and 20 November between a joint DFID/FCO team and the Government of Montserrat (GoM). My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State has today in Montserrat formally signed the agreement with Chief Minister Brandt.
The CPP sets out (a) GoM' s commitment to open and transparent government and to key democratic principles and (b) the general principles guiding HMG's relations with its overseas territories and specific commitments to Montserrat, including the £75 million available through DFID' s bilateral programme for the period 1998–99 to 2000–01.
The CPP contains a series of policy matrices which set out objectives and timebound actions for each sector. These include both the commitment to implement existing policies and to take decisions on outstanding policy issues. The most important include: social sectors—implementation of a social welfare review to improve the targeting and delivery of support to the neediest and review of the case for restoration of post-secondary and vocational education on the basis of the population on-island; public administration—a job evaluation exercise and review of terms and conditions of service for completion by early 2000 to improve recruitment and retention of staff with marketable skills; public finance—a review of the tax incentive regime in 1999 to ensure an appropriate balance between providing incentives for private sector activity and maintaining an adequate revenue base; infrastructure—agreement on provision of a fixed wing airlink facility in 1999; productive sectors—a business opportunity survey to improve the information available to potential investors.
All policy matrices are consistent with the HMG/GoM Sustainable Development Plan (SDP) and with the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) which forms part of the CPP and sets out ongoing and possible new projects for the period 1998 to 2000.
The draft PSIP is costed at EC$372 million (£85 million). After deduction of other donor, funded projects, the total of projects earmarked for DFID is £82 million. This is consistent with the £75 million resource envelope, as a degree of over-planning is necessary to ensure full use of the resources. The draft PSIP does not yet take account of all of the EDF resources that will become available in 1999, which will be subject to separate negotiations later this year.
A copy of the CPP will be placed in the Libraries of the House.