§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what financial aid has been granted to Serbia and the Kosovo region since 1999; what has been achieved in the country to date; and if he will make a statement. [132942]
Mr. Gareth ThomasSince 1999, DFID has invested £161 million in the Union of Serbia and Montenegro, including Kosovo. Initially, we provided emergency humanitarian assistance covering such areas as food and drug supplies, emergency shelter, health care, mines clearance and funding for international relief agencies.
We have since focused on supporting key economic and social reforms and the poverty reduction agenda, through both technical and budgetary assistance. We have funded strategic interventions such as the reform of Serbia's crumbling banking sector and the development of a merit-based civil service in post-conflict Kosovo. We have also provided £14 million as budgetary assistance to the Kosovo authorities to help meet the costs of administration and reconstruction during the post-conflict period. We also work through multilateral agencies such as the World Bank and the European Commission, contributing £393 million since 1999 through our share of EC development assistance. The EC is the biggest donor in the region, financing large-scale reconstruction programmes in the energy and transport sectors, as well as supporting administrative, economic and social reforms that will help the region rejoin the European mainstream.
Recent reviews of our assistance strategies for the region have found that while international assistance has been successful so far in meeting humanitarian and reconstruction needs, the emerging challenge is to help the authorities to improve the environment for reforms and growth as levels of aid decline.
693WWe will continue our support and have allocated £7.4 million for the coming financial year, in addition to a further £2 million through the inter-ministerial Global Conflict Prevention Pool and our continued contributions through the EC.