Overseas Aid (Private Sector Contracts)

Richard Fuller Excerpts

Monday 11th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

The short answers to that question are yes and yes. As was pointed out in the Financial Times, aid and business constitute a crucial alliance, which we must try to bind more closely.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

It is no surprise, is it, that the Labour party’s hostility to the private sector led Opposition Members to miss my right hon. Friend’s observation that ignoring that sector’s role in development was like trying to win a football match by leaving half one’s team on the bench? Can she add to her excellent list of initiatives an initiative to tap the entrepreneurial potential of Britain’s various diaspora communities by supporting development in their countries of origin?

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend will not be surprised to hear that this issue was raised after my speech in this morning’s question and answer session, and it is an incredibly powerful one. I believe that this country has more natural links to many of these developing economies than almost any other country in the world. We should be making the most of those and allowing our diasporas also to be part of helping the countries to which they have family links to develop.

Oral Answers to Questions

Richard Fuller Excerpts

Wednesday 31st October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I think we should be. In recent years I have spent time in Rwanda, which is a good example of where achieving things on the ground is often complex. Life is not black and white; we have to deal with real people and situations and navigate our way through them to the best of our ability. We know that there are still millions of people in Rwanda living in poverty. The aid programmes we have invested in there have been extremely successful, so there is absolutely a need to continue that work.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

2. What steps she is taking to encourage private capital investment in the Economic Community of West African States.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Lynne Featherstone)]

Through DFID offices and international programmes, we are helping west African countries to build infrastructure, reform laws and institutions that govern business, strengthen financial services and develop sound projects, to make them more attractive to private investors and stronger trading partners for the United Kingdom.

[Richard Fuller]

I thank the Minister for that response. I am sure that, like me, she recognises the critical role that small and medium-sized enterprises can play in west African states in ensuring development. We welcome the global SME finance facility that the Government have put in place. Will the Minister keep an open mind about expanding that facility, particularly for west African states, and will she join me in welcoming the steps that Governor Fashola has taken in Lagos state to improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria?

Oral Answers to Questions

Richard Fuller Excerpts

Wednesday 1st February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Patience rewarded: I call Mr Richard Fuller.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

APASENTH, a group with 20 years’ experience of working with adults with special educational needs in London, will shortly visit Bangladesh to see whether it can use its expertise to establish a centre there for people with autism. Will the Secretary of State agree to meet me and members of APASENTH after its visit to see how his Department can help that initiative?

[Mr Mitchell]

I certainly undertake to ensure that a Minister meets my hon. Friend to discuss the matter. I suggest that he and the charity engage with the global poverty action fund—a new fund set up by the coalition Government to support non-governmental organisations with matching money. He may find that a rewarding vein to mine.

Ivory Coast (Humanitarian Situation)

Richard Fuller Excerpts

Thursday 31st March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr O’Brien]

The hon. Gentleman, with his expert knowledge, is right to highlight those issues. He gives me the opportunity to make the important point that Her Majesty’s Government are working right across a number of Departments, not least through my hon. Friend the Minister with responsibility for Africa. The hon. Gentleman is also right about the north-south divide in the country, especially as we hear that troops loyal to President Ouattara are now only about 120 km north of the port of San Pedro, and may have captured Yamoussoukro, the political capital. It is vital to find a way of pulling together a political process that unites a riven faction that has caused desperate humanitarian crises in the past.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

I welcome the Minister’s statement on the provision of humanitarian relief and I note the UN resolution, but does he accept that what is really needed is a political solution that ejects Laurent Gbagbo from the presidency? This is a man who has rebuffed his people, rebuffed the Economic Community of West African States and rebuffed the African Union and is rebuffing the United Nations. Does the Minister accept that in this situation we have not done enough and not moved fast enough, and that this Government should do more to make sure that there is a peaceful resolution?

[Mr O’Brien]

Of course a political and peaceful solution has to be the overriding and most desirable outcome, but we have to deal with the facts on the ground as we know them to be. Enormous initiatives are taking place across ECOWAS, the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations. I know that the Foreign Secretary spoke to President Ouattara on 21 March and discussed the need for firm action in the UN against those who obstruct the African Union’s attempts to broker a peaceful transfer of power, and on 25 March my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development spoke to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia to ensure that we address the humanitarian concerns developing in that country.