Ms Oona King: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what progress has been made in concluding the CountryPolicy Plan for Montserrat. [66004]Clare Short: The Country Policy Plan (CPP) negotiations took place on Montserrat between 16-20 November between a joint DFID/FCOteam and the Government of Montserrat (GoM). My hon. Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, has today in Montserratformally signed the agreement with Chief Minister Brandt.The CPP sets out (a) GoM's commitment to open and transparent goverment and to key democratic principles and (b) the generalprinciples guiding HMG's relations with its Overseas Territories and specific commitments to Montserrat including the £75m availablethrough 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 thecommitment 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, andreivew 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 toimprove 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 forprivate 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 InvestmentProgramme (PSIP) which forms part of the CPP and sets out ongoing and possible new projects for the period 1998-2000.The draft PSIP is costed at EC$372m (£85m). After deduction of other donor funded projects, the total of projects earmarked for DFIDis £82m. This is consistent with the £75m resource envelope as a degree of over- planning is necessary to ensure full use of theresources. The draft PSIP does not yet take account of all of the EDF resources that will become available in 1999 which will besubject to separate negotiations later this year.A copy of the CPP will be placed in the Libary of the House.