Givers and takers

"..In the same way the British government used aid to secure the Sicartsa contract, the Canadian government has cofinanced at least two massive projects a year over the last decade through the Canadian International Development Agency and Canada's Export Development Corporation. One of these projects is the Chamera dam in India, which $650 million in loans locked up for Canadian firms. In a speech to the Canadian Exporters Association, Peter Haines, a former CIDA vice-president, explained: "The best way to be competitive is, of course, to avoid the competition altogether and that is essentially what ... we did on the Chamera Hydro Project in India." Haines noted that "there are immense front-end costs in taking a project off the market," but made clear that these were well worth bearing to win the contracts for Canadians.

Throwing these foreign aid projects at Third World countries has exacerbated their debt. With their repayment difficulties extreme, national aid agencies agreed in 1988 to provide debt relief, especially for the low-income countries of Africa..."