The benefits of UK giving foreign aid

YOUR correspondent Doug Bragg asks that we cancel all foreign aid. While I know – from my own personal experience – of more than one misguided aid project, the overall impact of foreign aid is to benefit the British economy.

Its direct benefits are in securing work and income for British firms that otherwise would go to US and EU companies. All countries give preference to their own national companies in awarding these contracts, and if Britain were to opt out of providing all foreign aid, several British companies would lose a significant proportion of their business.

The secondary benefit of foreign aid (some would claim it to be its main purpose) is to portray Britain in a favourable light so that the recipient countries look favourably on British companies when deciding to award lucrative contracts. In this respect, so-called “aid” can be viewed as an “advertising cost” for British industry – and easily justified by the extra income it generates for British industry. When I last saw reputable statistics of these matters, the value of such overseas contracts far outstripped the cost of overseas aid projects – a clear indication (if one is needed) that the overseas aid budget is cost-effective.

The real scandal, if one wishes to carp, is that some British firms who reap the rewards of extra winning these overseas contracts, don’t pay a fair share of the taxes due to the state that helped them obtain these lucrative overseas contracts. But that’s another story. Dr John Cox

Pontypool