Blair urges Korea to play bigger aid role

By Park Si-soo

BUSAN ㅡ Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged Korea to play a bigger role in assisting economic development of poor countries, Tuesday, saying it has “a lot to teach” them.

Blair also cited the need for Korea to seek ways to bolster its partnership with China in international aid.

“Korea should think of playing a bigger role in the field of aid development. You got a lot to teach (poor countries),” Blair said in an interview with Korean reporters. “Korea once survived on international aid but it has grown up as a donor state. This is a great achievement that African countries will look up to.”

He added Korea can teach countries in particular in Africa about development and how to create a successful country.

The 58-year-old politician, who founded the Africa Governance Initiative, is now visiting Busan, the country’s second largest city 450 kilometers south of Seoul, to attend the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, which will continue through Thursday. The forum kicked off Tuesday at the Bexco Convention Center in Haeundae.

He underscored the need to form a strategic partnership with China as a way to help poor countries stand on their own feet. China ㅡ along with Brazil, Russia and India ― has not yet joined the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s committee on development assistance, which means it has no mandate to share the international burden in development aid.

“The scale of money China is spending to create infrastructure in Africa exceeds that of the World Bank. There are many thorny issues for Western countries to discuss with the Chinese government including human rights and other political issues, but we need to see how we can cooperate effectively with China,” he said.

His remark is in line with international aid experts’ campaign in the forum to persuade the four emerging economic giants to take a bigger role in global aid efforts.

China has provided about $40 billion over the last six decades, much of it to resource-rich African countries. The country is stepping up its aid programs, which critics say are often used as a political tool to advance its own economic interest in oil, minerals and other natural resources there.

“These guys haven’t been part of the consensus previously as donors,” said Greg Adams, director of aid effectiveness at the international aid group Oxfam. “We don’t expect them to be in total compliance, but we do expect them to articulate their timeline on how they are getting up to speed.”

Amid escalating pressure on playing a bigger role in aid, the Chinese government sent delegates whose ranks are lower than those from other countries to the forum, reaffirming its stance that it will not be swayed by Western forces.

Blair said the biggest obstacle on the way to have aid-receiving countries standing on their own two feet is “lack of effective governing capacity.”

“The toughest thing is getting things done,” he said. “You can write reports very easily about what should be done. But it’s difficult to get things done. We need to get that done. Aid is important, but the most important thing is building capacity of countries to survive without help.”