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Minister defends foreign aid

PA Wellington The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Cooper, yesterday reacted strongly to the comments made on Thursday by Mr C. R. Marshall (Lab., Wanganui) that the Govern? ment's contribution to foreign aid programmes was “pathetically mean.”

Mr Cooper said that Mr Marshall was confusing statistics.

“Mr Marshall claimed that New Zealand’s total multilaterial and bilateral aid for 1981 was 0.39 per cent on gross national product and that other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries had much higher figures,” Mr Cooper said. “In fact, the figures quoted

illustrated the total net flow of resources from the countries concerned to developing countries and multilateral agencies. They include not only official aid but all private export credits and private investment, as well as aid from private relief agencies.”

Mr Cooper said that New Zealand’s official development assistance (0.D.A.) in 1981 equalled 0.29 per cent of GNP. The United States, Japan, and Switzerland were all lower at 0.20 per cent, 0.28 per cent and 0.24 per cent respectively. Mr Cooper asked Mr Marshall to say which areas of domestic spending should be reduced to allow O.D.A. to be increased.

Mr Marshall, page 5

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19830108.2.55

Bibliographic details

Press, 8 January 1983, Page 6

Word Count
196

Minister defends foreign aid Press, 8 January 1983, Page 6

Minister defends foreign aid Press, 8 January 1983, Page 6