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Written Answers to Questions
Friday 14 April 1989
OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT
Tanzania
Mr. Cox : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with other aid Ministers to seek to reschedule overseas debts in Tanzania.
Mr. Chris Patten : In 1979 Britain wrote off all aid debts owed by Tanzania, amounting to some £3.4 million. We have continued to urge others to follow this example for Tanzania and other low-income African countries undertaking programmes of structural adjustment. Tanzania has also benefited from concessional rescheduling of its official debt in the Paris Club, following the agreement reached last summer at the Toronto summit on the basis of the initiative launched by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Sri Lanka
Mr. Cox : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what are the present aid projects funded by his Department in Sri Lanka.
Mr. Chris Patten : Our grant aid is largely concentrated on transport, power, natural resources and education. In Colombo we are funding two major projects, to rebuild two main roads and to improve the power distribution network. We are preparing a forestry project. Under our training programme more than 200 Sri Lankans were in Britain last year. From our £20 million relief and reconstruction grant, which is mainly for the north and east, we are providing railway track, double-decker buses, lorries and trucks and finance for the rehabilitation programmes of the Save the Children Fund and Oxfam. Under the aid and trade provision, we are helping to finance the Samanalawewa hydro-electric project, the supply of potable water to three districts and the provision of 600 bus bodies.
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Privatisation
Mr. Tom Clarke : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) which officials of the Overseas Development Administration have met during the course of 1988 with researchers at the Adam Smith institute, to discuss the possibility of Britain supplying aid and assistance for the privatisation of industries in the developing world ; and if he will make a statement ;
(2) from whom he has sought advice on matters relating to the possibility of offering British privatisation expertise to Third world nations.
Mr. Chris Patten : There was a range of contacts between officials and outside bodies, including the Adam Smith Institute, concerned with the development of the private sector overseas, including privatisation.
WALES
M4
Mr. John Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales when work was last commenced on a new section of the M4 motorway ; what has been the increase in traffic on the Baglan-Lonlas area since that time ; and if he will reconsider his start dates for this new section of the M4, in particular the new bridge and the connecting road to Baglan.
Mr. Wyn Roberts : Work on the most recent section of the M4, the Bridgend northern bypass, started in 1978 and was completed in 1981. Traffic volumes on the A48 between Baglan and Lonlas have increased by some 50 per cent. since 1978 but are still within the design capacity of the road.
The programme set out in "Roads in Wales 1989" for completing the Baglan- Lonlas section by mid 1994 is the most practical one. The Earlswood to Lonlas scheme is planned to start in the current financial year.
Capital Expenditure
Mr. Rogers : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what was the total (a) central Government and (b) local government capital expenditures in each year from 1979-80 to 1987-88, expressed in cash and in real terms, taking 1979-80 as 100.
Mr. Grist : Gross central Government and local authority capital expenditure within my responsibility for the years 1979-80 to 1987-88, taking 1979-80 as 100, is estimated to have been as follows :
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