OECD praises Belgium’s foreign aid budget

28 October 2005

BRUSSELS — The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has praised Belgium’s foreign aid budget and policy, Overseas Development Minister Armand de Decker has revealed.

De Decker said the OECD examined Belgium’s international development aid policy and used the ‘peer review’ to defend the federal government’s policy. The OECD report will be published in the near future.

Critics have recently claimed the Belgian development budget should become a regional matter, Flemish broadcaster VRT reported.

De Decker dismissed the demands as being “ridiculous”, stressing that if responsibility for the foreign aid budget was handed over to Belgium’s regional authorities, the budget would become too fragmented.

“Belgium is currently the number six on the list of most important countries where development aid is concerned,” De Decker said.

“Splitting up the budget would be unwise, the OECD says. The organisation doesn’t understand why why we are even considering it.”

[Copyright Expatica News 2005]

Subject: Belgian news