§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will list the countries which have benefited from the Government's funding for trade-related capacity building and technical assistance since 1998; and how the money has been used. [149071]
§ Hilary Benn£160 million has been committed to trade related capacity building from 1998—more than treble the pledge in the 2000 White Paper "Eliminating World Poverty: Making Globalisation Work for the Poor."
Trade related capacity building assistance and technical assistance has been delivered through bilateral, regional and multilateral channels for the benefit of individual countries and groups of countries.
Therefore all developing countries and territories and some of the countries and territories in transition listed in the Departmental Report 2003 have benefited from the Government's trade-related capacity building and technical assistance since 1998.
Funding has been provided for the development of trade sectors such as services, tourism, fisheries, forestry, public/private sector networking, banking and finance, business support services and institutions, industry and agriculture.
Assistance has also been provided for the formulation of trade policy through to benefit poor people with an emphasis on including trade issues in national poverty reduction and country assistance plans. Support has also been provided for training in trade negotiation techniques, agriculture, intellectual property rights, dispute settlement, regional trade agreements, assisting with accession to the WTO and trade facilitation.
§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will list the countries that will benefit from the £50 million support announced by his predecessor in September 2003 for trade-related capacity building and technical assistance. [149072]
§ Hilary BennNigeria will benefit from a programme designed to improve poor people's access to commodity and services markets.
Ukraine will benefit from a programme designed to support progress towards accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and greater integration into the global economy.
The Government are also supporting a regional trade facilitation programme with the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Secretariats. The precise allocation of resources within and between these regional groups will be for the Secretariats to decide.
426WIn addition, direct support to central government budgets will be provided to a number of developing countries, especially in Africa.