CONFIDENTIAL
maintenance goods are probably additional UK exports, though by the nature of the issue, it is not possible to say how much.
34 The Working Party have not agreed a recommendation on this point. However, now that the review of policy towards India has been initiated, it would probably be sensible for Ministers not to take a final view on this issue or to settle the aid allocation for India for 1978/79 and beyond, until they have considered their overall policy towards India.
35
The allocations to countries other than India raise fewer problems A minor improvement which has been put in hand is for DOT to provide and keep updated, a list grouping aid recipients broadly in order of commercial attractiveness as a guide to ODM in preparing the aid framework.
VII
36
TECHNICAL CO-OPERATION
Where technical co-operation is directly or indirectly associated with commercial objectives it is a valuable trade tool and many of the commercial considerations outlined in paragraphs 25-26 above about the application of project aid apply with equal force. There is consider- able scope within the aid programme for the increasing and positive use of technical co-operation to meet trade objectives; a particular example is the aid financing of pre-feasibility studies for projects which would provide future commercial opportunities for the UK with potentially high leverage in introducing new business at relatively low cost. This scheme should be actively promoted to enable industry to put forward proposals - and arrangements will be made by Departments to provide more detailed guidance for ODM than hitherto.
37
The Middle East is an area where the provision of technical co-operation, whether on a paid or aid financed basis, can be particularly important to our commercial interests; to an extent, the same applies to the more prosperous countries in Latin America and Francophone Africa, countries which do not naturally turn to UK industry for their needs. We recommend that administrative and technical resources should, in the UK interest, be devoted to capital- ising on the demand for paid technical co-operation in this area. ODM resources will form an important component of this effort and should continue to be made available provided the aid programme is not adversely affected. In the provision of consultancies, priority should be given to studies of potential developmental value in fields in which British industry is likely to be especially competitive or where there are possibilities of technological tying.
•
38 In this connection ODM and DOT have agreed to aim at a Government to Government technical co-operation agreement with Saudi Arabia which might later form a model for other OPEC states. This would mean setting up in a Government department in Whitehall a central unit to receive, co-ordinate and, where appropriate, encourage technical co-operation requests, to allocate action to appropriate departments and organisa- tions and to administer a deposit account into which the Saudis would pay in advance sums to cover the cost of agreed projects. ODM has agreed in principle to undertake this role, in close association with DOT. A joint DOT/ODM Working Party has been set up under ODM chairman- ship to investigate further the administrative, contractual and financial arrangements involved, including the preparation of a draft technical co-operation agreement and the establishment of a central co-ordinating unit when required.
39 Ministers are invited to endorse the proposals in paras 36-38.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.