Vince Cable told: ‘End Britain’s Dodgy Deals’
Activists will today hand in thousands of postcards to Business Secretary Vince Cable MP, at the start of a new campaign to overhaul the shadowy Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD).
The Department, accountable to Cable’s office, has provided billions of dollars insurance for the arms and fossil fuel industries, building up large amounts of developing world debt in the process. Campaigners accuse the Department of providing a taxpayer subsidy to overseas projects which have been linked to corruption, human rights abuses and environmental destruction. (1)
Jubilee Debt Campaign (2) is particularly concerned that ECGD is the largest public holder of ‘Third World Debt’ in the UK, with developing countries owing nearly £2 billion to the institution, another £2 billion having been repaid in the last 10 years. Campaigners claim that this money is draining the coffers of developing countries on the basis of projects which have all too often proved detrimental to the population or environment of the country itself.
Campaigners point to:
- British arms sales to the brutal Indonesian dictator General Suharto, used in repression, which the current Indonesian government is still paying for;
- A vastly overpriced hydro-electric power station in Kenya which produced only a small amount of the power promised to Kenyans;
- An Indian power plant involving bankrupt multinational Enron which cost the Indian authorities hundreds of millions of dollars despite being shut down because the local government couldn’t afford to buy electricity from it;
- A dam in Lesotho which resulted in a corruption case involving hundreds of thousands of pounds in one of the poorest countries in the world.
Nick Dearden, Director of Jubilee Debt Campaign, said:
“Vince Cable has expressed his strong opposition to the way the ECGD works in the past – now is the time to put words into action. It is absolutely unconscionable that this part of the British government can go on supporting projects involving human rights abuses, corruption and environmental destruction – and then expect some of the poorest countries in the world to pay for it.
“The ECGD could be used to help new, green industry, but instead it’s supporting massive corporations develop appalling projects. It’s time the ECGD dropped the debt and ditched the dodgy deals.”
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For more information contact Nick Dearden 07932 335464.
Notes:
1. The Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) is the UK’s export credit agency, reporting to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. It provides insurance and guarantees to UK exporters entering ‘risky’ markets. Traditionally 75% of ECGD support has been given to the arms and carbon-intensive industries. In the event of an ECGD financed company not being paid by the relevant importing party, it is able to recover its project costs from the ECGD. The ECGD may then try to recover the total sum paid from the government of the recipient country – in effect it will become debt which that government owes to the UK Government. In this way developing countries have accumulated significant quantities of bi-lateral debt.
2. Jubilee Debt Campaign is the UK coalition campaigning for 100% cancellation of unjust and unpayable poor country debts