News of Norway, October 25, 2003
The State Secretary announced the sum of the Norwegian contribution to participants at a donor conference held in Madrid today. The money will be spent on humanitarian and transitional assistance, and the Mr. Helgesen made it clear that the humanitarian aspect is important to Norway.
"It is of paramount importance that international standards for human rights have a central place in the rebuilding of the country. It is particularly important to safeguard the rights of women, children and all ethnic and religious groups," he said.
Not only Iraq
The 63 million Euros, approximately 74 millon USD, will be donated over a time period of three years. The exact level of Norwegian total assistance will depend on the humanitarian situation inside Iraq as well as the extent to which the Norwegian business community will be able to take advantage of the measures made available.
Mr. Helgesen stressed that although the challenge in Iraq is immense, the international community should not forget that there are other countries in the world that are also in dire need of humanitarian aid.
"One such country is Afghanistan, where we expect to allocate EUR 138 million (USD 162 million), excluding military resources, for 2003-06. This makes a total contribution to these two countries in the amount of EUR 201 million (USD 236 million)," Helgesen said.
Billions needed
The World Bank has earlier announced that approximately USD 36 billion is needed to rebuild Iraq. The U.S.-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority has said that an additional USD 20 billion is needed for security and oil sector purposes.
The United States has so far pledged USD 20 billion towards reconstructing Iraq. The two-day summit in Madrid was aimed at encouraging other members of the international community to contribute towards the common goal of a stable and secure Iraq.
International fund
Much of the funds being raised in Madrid will be placed in a trust managed by the World Bank. State Secretary Helgesen said in his remarks that Norway is positive to placing parts of its contributions in such a fund.
“With a multi-donor fund established with broad international support, and provided that there is agreement on the modalities of the fund, Norway will consider channeling the greater part of its transitional assistance through this fund,” he said.
Other donors
Several other countries have pledged assistance towards rebuilding Iraq. According to BBC News, these include:
$20bn from the United States
$5bn from Japan
$3bn-$5bn from the World Bank
$4.35bn over three years from International Monetary Fund
$1bn from Saudi Arabia
$1bn from Kuwait
$835m from Britain
$300m from Spain
$231m from the European Union
$200m from South Korea
$174m from Italy
$150m from Canada
$32.6m from Sweden
$5.9m from Belgium