CONFIDENTIAL
VIII INDUSTRIAL TRAINING
40 We note that the 1975 inter-Departmental Working Party examined the aid financed industrial training of overseas nationals in the UK; it concluded that the extension of such training was commercially desirable, that it provided a valuable form of technical co-operation and that an appreciable expansion could be undertaken without pre- judicing developmental considerations. Industrial training is a commercially important element of the technical co-operation programme and the implementation of the Working Party's recommendations, particularly that there should be a substantial increase in the number of aid financed industrial trainees, should be speeded up so far as is possible.
41 Further emphasis should also be placed on the provision of technical and vocational training in selected industries in overseas countries, especially by helping with the establishment of training centres staffed with British teachers and equipped with British machinery and Posts should be instructed accordingly.
42
IX
43
Ministers are invited to endorse the proposals in paras 40-41.
MULTILATERAL AID
A substantial and rising proportion of UK gross aid is channelled through multilateral agencies. The proportion was 20% in 1974, 31% in 1975 and is planned under the current Aid Framework to rise to 34% in 1979/80. The principal components are:
I'm 1975
£m
£m
1976 (estimate)
1979/80 (Aid
Frame-
work
cash
prices)
World Bank Group
66
68
114
UN Agencies
40
27
35
EEC
18
36
96
6
12
26
44
Regional Development Banks
It is an important part of the aid strategy to use aid to stimulate matching contributions from other governments through bilateral and multilateral channels in ways which benefit the poorest countries. Our multilateral aid is an essential element in the pursuit of this objective. Nevertheless, because of the scale of our multilateral aid, which is untied, it is also important, from the commercial point of view, to ensure so far as practicable that the UK obtains a satis- factory return in terms of our share of procurement financed through multilateral agencies.
45 In respect of the World Bank Group the UK share of procurement from IBRD/IDA contracts declined in the early 1970s, with a marked falling-off in tenders by UK firms. More recently there have been signs of a recovery in our procurement share. The UK share of IBRD procurement has fallen from over 12% in 1970 to 6% in 1976. Our share of IDA procurement, which was 15% in 1970, fell to 9% by 1975, but picked up to 11.8% in 1976. These figures compare with the UK
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