Public support ‘is key to meeting aid target’

Friday 26th October 2007, 12:00AM BST.

PUBLIC support is the key to Jersey achieving the UN overseas aid budget target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income, Colin Powell told a gathering of people involved in overseas aid projects last night.

Organised by the Jersey One World Group in One World Week, it was the first meeting to be held at their new base at the former La Pouquelaye School. Mr Powell, former States chief adviser and the chairman of the Jersey Financial Services Commission, chaired a panel which recently backed a scrutiny panel’s conclusion that Jersey could achieve the UN target, and suggested that environmental taxes might be the best means of doing so. He repeated that view last night and the fact that the panel felt a gradual increase to achieve the target by 2020 was realistic but would need public support.

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