Tied aid isn’t aid

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The FT has reported that:

The much-trumpeted $5bn China-Africa Development Fund, portrayed by Beijing as economic assistance, will be used to invest exclusively in Chinese enterprises and their projects in the continent.

Such policy of "tying" aid to purchasing goods and services from the donor country has been attacked by development experts as wasteful and inefficient, and most donor governments have been abandoning the practice.

This is bad news for Africa. Tied aid is not aid at all. It's domestic economic policy played out on the world stage. It almost always supplies inappropriate products and services, is harmful to genuine economic development in the recipient economy and distorts international trade.

International protest should follow this announcement.

And the closest monitoring of the use of these funds should follow. The easiest way to get developing countries to accept these funds will be the traditional one: the payment of commissions. To ensure corruption does not feature in this activity this cannot be allowed.


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