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5.7 pm
Mr. Tony Colman (Putney): I think I am the first inner-London Member of Parliament to contribute to the debate. May I do so especially by saying that the issue of African development arises on the doorsteps of Putney because people are concerned as to what is going wrong? However, I speak not in particular for the trade justice groups and the Churches, as Putney is the location of the headquarters of Voluntary Service Overseas, which I commend to the House.
I also have in my constituency the world centre of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, which has not only just opened the largest mosque in Europe, but which finances the largest non-governmental organisation, Humanity First. It provides schools and health care throughout Africa. Vegpro, a large vegetable processing company that imports from east and central Africa, is also based in my constituency, as is Nando's retail chain, whose world headquarters are in Putney and in South Africa.
It is perhaps as important and intriguing to note that there are some 25,000 South Africans in Putney. Clearly, when my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House came here as an asylum seeker—a refugee—in the 1970s, others followed. I am pleased to pay tribute to the work being done by the Reverend Stephen Melhuish at, to pick out one church, St. Michael's in Southfields, which has some 500 South African members and is twinned with a number of parishes in South Africa. It works with those parishes on issues to do with HIV/AIDS, and in particular works with HIV/AIDS orphans.
This issue very much affects me at my surgeries and on the doorsteps of Putney, and I want to take a different approach to it from others who spoke before me. I do not mean that they are wrong; I simply think that an alternative voice needs to be put forward.
I want to talk about trade, taxation, education and health care.
I do not want to repeat what was said in Thursday's excellent Westminster Hall debate, but I want to refer to the 2002 African trade report produced by the African Export-Import bank, based in Egypt. It demonstrates that Africa may not be the basket case that many consider it to be. It is in fact a vibrant continent with many great successes and enormous potential, some of which has already been fulfilled. In 2002 it achieved a trade surplus of US$4.2 billion—a fall from the 2001 figure of US$5.59 billion, but that is partly due to the growth in imports. As the Secretary of State said, there was a 3.5 per cent. increase in trade in 2002, as against a 1 per cent. contraction in 2001.
According to this reference book—apparently the only one available from African sources—Africa's share of world trade in 2002 was 1.93 per cent. That was a slight increase on the previous year's figure; of course, world trade increased. The value of intra-African trade grew by 6 per cent. during that year. It is interesting to see the list of countries that are rapidly increasing the percentages of their total trade that represent trade with the rest of Africa. Uganda's percentage is 43, Niger's 39, Mali's 38, Burkina Faso's 37 and Mozambique's 36. One important subject that we did not discuss on Thursday is the World Bank figures, which show that if Africa traded more with Africa across state boundaries there would be a significant improvement, and greater employment possibilities. I commend the work of COMESA, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, based in Lusaka, and that of SADC—the Southern African Development Community—which I think is based in Gabarone. I am glad that those bodies are working jointly, and that there is potential for an Africa-wide free trade area.
Let me now say something about tax. The Secretary of State said that he had attended the United Nations General Assembly special session on finance for development—last week, I think. Perhaps in the winding-up speech we could hear a comment on the suggestion by Jose Antonio Ocampo, the United Nations Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, that the UN should be the forum for global dialogue on tax matters. As trade increased and the multinationals became increasingly involved, the UN should consider the issues involved—not necessarily tariff issues, which are a matter for the World Trade Organisation, but the taxing of exports and the corporation tax profits of companies trading in Africa.
It is important for there to be a UN approach rather than, as it were, a race to the bottom. Many people have criticised the UN global compact: the state voices seem to have been muted, and the multinationals are making the running. Perhaps, given his attendance at UNGASS, the Secretary of State will say something about that.
Rev. Martin Smyth (Belfast, South): How far does the international body seek to influence, for example, Chad,
which is one of the poorest countries? Will any of the oil that is being produced get back to Chad, so that it can build up its own economic prosperity?
Mr. Colman: The World Bank, through the International Finance Corporation, has laid down strict rules—for the first time, I believe—whereby the taxes paid by the oil companies must be spent on such things as education and health. I understand that that is being overseen by the World Bank. I read in the newspapers that there was something of a slip-up in the first few days, and that the purchasing of some arms was allowed. But the overall view is that this is the way forward to ensure that, if a new form of finance is available, the first call must be on health and education. However, it is for each sovereign African state to take its own decisions. As many of our International Development Committee reports have said, the important thing is for each country to have the policy space to take its own decisions on trade, tax, health care and education.
Returning to tax, I think it important that, as Members who are interested in international development, we do not allow the wealthy in developing countries to get off the hook. I am saddened by the fact that very little tax is paid by the wealthy in many African countries. According to any interpretation of policy space, taxation policy and how to raise taxes should be matters on which the country in question decides, although it may wish to seek outside advice. I was interested to meet a constituent of mine who is working for Crown Agents, advising on public accounting standards and taxation in Mozambique. He asked, "Are you surprised that I consider this an important area?" I said, "No—it is important to build a local tax base." Unless people feel that they have a stake in the schools and clinics that they have contributed to—the sums contributed from their pockets may be small, but they constitute a large proportion of their income—they will not regard such facilities as their own. In Pakistan, there is a virtual resurgence of local health care and education, because local government legislation allows local councils to levy local taxes. Because taxes are levied locally, local constituents make sure that the teachers and nurses are there. That has not happened before.
On schooling, everyone in this House would support the Dakar declaration of 2000, which ensures that schooling is carried through. My concern is that in doing so, we make sure that account is taken of what is happening on the ground. There is an element of private education in virtually every African country, and in that regard an interesting exchange of letters between Professor James Tooley and Oxfam's Kevin Watkins took place in today's Financial Times. The latter said that he is not against the provision of private education, but he also said that the main provision should be through the state. As a Labour MP, I strongly support that view.
We should however consider private finance initiatives and public-private partnerships, which the Department for International Development has yet to do, as an alternative way forward. We are building schools all over Britain on the basis of PFI and PPP; could similar arrangements be made available if the
country concerned wished to have them? The same is true of health care. We were all galvanised into action at the Labour party conference when the Chancellor of the Exchequer talked about the international financing facility's providing a health service for Africa. It is important to point out that hospitals all over Africa are empty and in decline because they have been built in the wrong places, and the doctors and nurses cannot be afforded. There is a need to ensure wrap-around health care. I ask whether there is a way forward by adapting for Africa the public-private partnerships that are getting hospitals built here. That could be done within a 30 or 25-year time frame, which would ensure that doctors and nurses got paid and that the hospitals were of a suitable quality for local people.I pay tribute to AAR Health Services, which is chaired by Lord Enniskillen. It is the main private health provider in east Africa. Its founder was Bengt Beckman, whom I have met. His widow, Mrs. Beckman, took me to see the clinics—they are partly financed by the Department for International Development—around Nairobi. There were four clinics there, a further two in Tanzania and one will soon open in Kampala. This is an attempt to provide good quality health care on an affordable basis for the poorest people in east Africa. It is an interesting initiative and I praise DFID for working on this public-private partnership, albeit one that has not seen much light of day.
To conclude, it is not just a matter of trade: it is also a matter of aid. When I used to meet the noble Lord Bauer, who has since died, back in the 1960s, I used to fight him continually—almost physically—on his view that aid would corrupt the African continent and lead to 30 or 40 years of slow development. In his view, trade was the only way forward. I now believe that he was half right, but that I was half right, too. We need both. Africa needs the policy space to decide how best to go forward, but the idea in my speech should be taken into account. Progress can be made in the form of a partnership and through properly taxing business, but that will not deliver the whole answer for health care and education—only part of it.
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