---

Future of CDC

I hope that the issue can be looked at in greater detail. I appreciate that it is complex, but none the less there are real causes for concern. The Government have acknowledged many of the concerns about CDC. I am encouraged that that has strengthened CDC's environmental, social and governance procedures. CDC is also committed to introducing new development impact indicators and to developing new investment instruments, so that it no longer operates exclusively as a fund-of-funds investor. By 2015, 20% of its investments will be loans and 20% of them will be direct equity investments. However, that still leaves 60% of its investments being delivered through private equity funds. I question whether such turbo-charged profit seekers are always the appropriate development finance vehicles. Indeed, fund managers themselves are sceptical about the compatibility of the fund-of-funds approach with DFID's development objectives, particularly in addressing poverty. There are some important lessons to be learned here, most notably about the need for proper scrutiny of development projects and for CDC's investments to be properly monitored on a regular basis. My constituent has looked at a relatively small proportion of CDC-backed funds, but what he has already discovered makes me extremely concerned that there deep-seated problems that needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency. Profiting from development at the expense of the poor is easy; history is, unfortunately, replete with examples of that. The more difficult challenge is to assist poorer people in designing and developing programmes for their own benefit, rather than that of their financial backers. I very much hope that CDC can rise to that challenge in the future. Finally, I sincerely apologise for the fact that I cannot be present for the whole debate, although I will be here for some time. I understand that it goes on until 5.30 pm.