Moscow, June 30 (RIA Novosti) - There is no point in making any additional commitments on aid to Africa, a Russian presidential aide said Thursday.
Speaking to a Moscow news conference, Igor Shuvalov said he doubted that the financial aid offered to Africa's poorest countries would be put to good use. "Those countries have opaque financial systems and the level of corruption is very high," he said. "The funds will be spent, but people will feel no benefit."
Britain has proposed that Western nations double their aid to Africa. "But money will not solve all the problems," Shuvalov warned. He said he believed that the issue called for a holistic approach and that relief programs should be carefully targeted.
He also said that no consensus on aid to Africa had been reached yet, with donor states unwilling to make pledges they knew they would not be able to deliver upon.
The Russian presidential aide said that despite their current budget deficits, several European countries (such as Italy and Germany) had already pledged some money to finance programs in Africa through the year 2010 and that Canada, too, had a number of projects in the continent.
Shuvalov said Russia had a clear understanding of how much of Africa's debt it could realistically write off and what kinds of programs it could afford to finance. But he stopped short of revealing any specific amounts, saying that debates on the issue were still ongoing.
