Spain: government to fulfil the promise about aid to development

The current Socialist government is coming to its end so the moment has arrived for those in the top positions to make their main achievements known to the general public. At the beginning, the President of the Spanish Government committed himself to increasing the aid to the Third World, a commitment that would seem to have been accomplished. The Spanish State Secretary for Co-operation stated that during the three years (2005-2007) of the present Socialist Government the amount devoted to development aid has been higher than the amount earmarked by the previous government of the Popular Party during seven years (1997-2003) (2004, that is, when there was the government change in question, is considered a transitional year). In these three years, 11,000 millions dollars were devoted to development aid, an amount that in the previous seven years had been of 10,450 million dollars. In 2007, the Spanish Government has anticipated that the official development aid will reach 4,200 million dollars , which will represent 0.42% of the Gross Domestic Product. This will make it easier for the Spanish Government to reach percentages of 0.5% and 0.7% in 2008 and 2012 respectively and therefore to fulfil the promise made by the President of the Spanish Government when he won the elections. All the Parliamentary political groups have recognised such an increase, although there has been some criticism concerning the quality of this aid. The spokesperson for the Popular Party denounced the scattering of the funds and that the greatest percentage of the Spanish development aid is not directly invested but addressed to international institutions so that the Spanish contribution is less apparent that it should be. More information on: www.mae.es