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Don't make the aid flow to Third World a trickle, Sinha urges big brothers

India has protested against the developed industrial nations for the decline in their concessional aid, also known as the Official Development Assistance, to the developing countries, making them all the more vulnerable at a time of serious global financial crisis.

Speaking in Washington at the development committee, the policy-making body of the World Bank, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha raised the issue in the context of the transfer of resources to the developing countries, which is the main mandate of this body.

While the world was facing the biggest financial challenge in half a century, he pointed out that the ODA as a share of gross national product of industrial nations had come down to 0.22 per cent -- the lowest rate recorded in the same period.

He said the East Asian crisis had underlined the important role of official flows, especially concessional assistance, in underpinning stable capital flows to poorer countries, quite apart from its key role in promoting investments in human capital and other social sectors in developing countries.

''If we fail to invest adequately in these sectors, the impetus to economic reforms and sound long-term development will be weakend,'' Sinha remarked.

UNI