problem

The aid problem

Small island states need to wean themselves off foreign aid to achieve economic indepen dence, says the Cook Island gov ernment’s financial secretary, Lloyd Powell.

Lloyd Powell is in charge of the Cook Islands economic reform pro gramme. He says economic reforms in small island states are difficult to achieve because of the Pacific paradigm - dependency on aid.

He says the Cooks and other small countries "need to figure out how to give up that drug [aid] dependency” because "any small island state can stand on its own two feet”.

"Aid is a drug to be used carefully to get a state to be independent and free,” and that’s the real challenge facing the Cooks and other small Pacific countries, according to Lloyd Powell. ■