US budget cuts leads

Aid

US budget cuts leads to less aid for Pacific

BUDGET cuts and the growing demand for help from former Soviet republics have been blamed for the United States government’s decision to axe aid projects in the South Pacific.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said it would close its Suva and Port Moresby offices , o 1 * . iii n by September this year and shut down all •■ 1 • r . , c its aid projects m the region by September 1995. Lost will be health entire.,ment and trade development programmes throughout the South Pacific.

Instead the region will have to rely on

help from private and voluntary organ-

isations in the US, USAID regional director David Leong said.

He said US Congress had wanted to cut the government aid budget in the

region from US$7.5 million (A 510.63

million) in fiscal 1993 to zero this year.

However jt Wa * L nally P ersuaded to S lve US$2 million (As2.B million) this year so USAID projects could be phased out rather than be dumped immediately. r - We are trying to be as gentle as possible so we retain our image in the region, Leong said. Nothing has been easy to cut.

While the USAID budget was shrinking, another major factor was an increase in aid to the former Soviet republics.

“That is causing demands to be placed on the limited budget.” The Suva and Port Moresby offices are among the first of2l USAID offices to close over the next two years. Cuts in the South Pacific will cost 40 to 50 jobs.

Latin America and Asia have also been hard hit. Considered more needy were former Soviet republics, Africa and the West Bank. Leong said recession and high unemployment in the US had undermined support for foreign aid programmes.

“We have had to fight for our own bureaucratic life as an organisation. To keep aid alive, we have had to make some fairly draconian cuts.”

Among aid projects to be axed in September this year are malaria immu nology and vaccine field trials in Papua New Guinea and a programme to develop trade in eco-tourism, food and handicrafts. A series of grants for child health and forestry programmes will also end this year.

Ending next year will be a regional

family planning project and a commer

cial agricultural programme operating in Fiji, Tonga, Western Samoa and Vanu atu. USAID said the Asian development Bank would pick up many elements of a Papua New Guinea child survival sup port project to end in March 1995.

Marine projects affected include black pearl research in the Cook Islands and support for PNG’s Fishing Industry Association. Projects to be completed include a regional AIDS prevention programme and a profitable environ

mental protection project. However, the

cuts mean there will be no follow-up programmes, Leong said. AAP □