THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1981. The level of N.Z. aid

Press, 18 November 1981, Page 16

THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1981. The level of N.Z. aid

New Zealand gave about $7O million in official foreign aid last year; another $7 million was given privately through various organisations. Together, the two figures amounted to about 0.35 per cent of New Zealand’s gross .national product. The aim for most wealthy countries, including New Zealand, is to give 1 per cent of G.N.P., made up of 0.7 per cent from the Government, called Official Development Assistance, and 0.3 per cent of G.N.P. from private sources. New Zealand has come in for some minor criticism from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development because its official aid, measured in percentages, has been declining slightly. Besides the lower percentage of G.N.P. which New Zealand has been giving, the declining value of the New Zealand dollar takes its toll in real dollar terms. That is not part of the O.E.C.D. criticism. The exchange rate of any particular currency is not included in. the target figure. However, it does affect the size of the projects which New Zealand can undertake and presents problems for budgeting for programmes. In the O.E.C.D. ranking of its 17 members of the Development Assistance Committee, New Zealand now shares eleventh place with Japan. Previously New Zealand held the eleventh place alone. Other rankings of O.E.C.D. members show that as New Zealand’s standard of living and economic performance have slipped, it has allowed its official aid to decline in percentage terms. No time seems ideal for giving aid, but governments feel more secure in giving generously when the home economy is flourishing. The basis of the O.E.C.D. criticism is that the percentage has been allowed to decline, not that the percentage has not increased quickly enough. The discussion of the level of foreign aid invites consideration of the whole question of aid. Although foreign aid can seem to be something given out of the generosity of the hearts of New Zealanders, through

their Government as well as privately, there are sound reasons for maintaining the level of aid, even when times are more difficult in New Zealand. The humanitarian aspect of aid — disaster relief, alleviation of famine, and so on — is important and. helps to fulfil the society’s needs for compassionate outlets. The more basic purposes of aid include helping with. the economic and social development of other countries. There are selfish benefits to be had from seeing a country develop its economy, the most obvious of them being that the country can develop to the . point at which it provides important trade opportunities. There are other advantages in aid in that more prosperous countries are generally more secure and stable countries. New Zealand’s aid has been, for several years, concentrated heavily in the Pacific. An important consideration for New Zealand has been that some of the smaller countries of the Pacific have special problems of development which may not respond to the aid measures taken by some of the big international agencies. New Zealand’s long familiarity with some of the islands has given it a special insight. Yet even in the Pacific New Zealand’s aid in absolute terms is now lower than the aid from several other , countries: France, Britain, and Australia. It must be expected that New Zealand’s influence in the Pacific will diminish as the aid of others grows proportionately greater. New Zealand has still to acknowledge that a number of the Pacific islands will not become self-sufficient, no matter, how much aid is given by New Zealand or anyone else. Nevertheless, in terms of closeness and in terms of the composition of the population of New Zealand, some of these islands are - going to remain of importance to this country. For New Zealand’s own self-interest, as well as other considerations, the level of aid needs to be maintained and eventually increased.