asked the Minister of Overseas Development what is her estimate of the value of export orders received by the United Kingdom for every £ sterling contributed by it to multilateral aid programmes.

The value varies a good deal according to the multilateral programme concerned, as well as to some extent year by year. Taking the various "soft aid" agencies as a whole, however, in recent years British exporters have won about £1 worth of orders for every £1 contributed from the aid programme. But the export orders won by Britain from the ordinary lending of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the main regional development banks have been several times the value of our paid-in subscriptions to their capital, because such lending is mainly financed from market borrowings.