Skip to main content

Developing Countries: Infrastructure

Volume 471: debated on Thursday 31 January 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps his Department is taking to promote infrastructure development in the developing world. (182760)

The Department for International Development (DFID) promotes infrastructure development in a number of ways. For example, through bilateral country programmes we support road building and maintenance in Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo, rural transport in Vietnam and Ethiopia and rural access between communities in Nepal. DFID also supports a regional programme to advise on transport policy in Africa.

More widely, sponsorship of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), a multi-donor organisation, by the Government helps harness the finance and expertise of the private sector. In addition, US $20 million has been committed over three years to support the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA) which helps co-ordination between donors and African countries through its secretariat in the African Development Bank. Additionally, a range of technical assistance and co-financing funds helps increase the effectiveness of other multi-lateral institutions which lead infrastructure development in developing countries (for example, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank).