OTTAWA, Feb 20 (AFP) - Canadian Minister for International Cooperation Susan Whelan flew to Paris Thursday for talks on how to improve strategic international aid planning with other donor countries.
Armed with a budget boost of 1.4 billion dollars (924 million US) per year for at least the next three years for her international aid programme, Whelan said she was hoping to improve coordination between different donors for better targetting of aid projects.
Her department's plan is to direct most of Canada's international aid spending to Africa and specifically to health and welfare projects such as combatting HIV/AIDS.
Whelan, who will accompany Finance Minister John Manley, will be spending most of her time at the assistance committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development.
Canada, she said, was now "moving in the right direction" towards achieving the OECD target of spending 0.7 percent of its GDP on international assistance.
Whelan's international assistance programme will be increased by eight percent a year through fiscal 2004-05 and Ottawa wants to double Canada's international assistance spending by 2010.
At the same time, Canada has exempted 48 of the world's least developed countries from import duties and quotas, with the exception of some agricultural products.
Manley is heading to Paris for this weekend's meeting of G-7 finance ministers, during which international aid questions are also expected to arise.
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