The Norwegian Minister of International Development Anne Kristin Sydnes welcomes the United Kingdom’s decision to cease tying its development assistance to UK suppliers. This was announced in its White Paper "Making Globalisation Work for the World’s Poor", which was released on 11 December 2000.

The move gives a boost to the international effort to end this old-fashioned practice, which significantly reduces the effectiveness of development assistance. Together with like-minded colleagues, the UK and Norway have long worked to reach an agreement among OECD countries to stop tying their development assistance to the Least Developed Countries. These efforts have been obstructed by a few countries that have raised objections to such an agreement. We have argued that OECD members should put aside their differences and come to an agreement without further delay.

Most of Norway’s development assistance has been untied for a long time and has been open to international tenders. The continuation of remaining schemes like tied mixed credits has to be considered in the light of the international donor practice, and the UK move provides a guideline in this respect. In the budget for 2001 the Norwegian Government has included a common budget allocation for tied and untied mixed credits in addition to funds for co-financing with the development finance institutions.