The Department of Trade and Economic
Development held a forum in Adelaide recentlyy to inform more than 70
SA businesses about multimillion-dollar opportunities in the Official
Development Assistance market.

Department chief executive Raymond Garrand
said the global official development market was valued at $108 billion
last financial year "and still growing".

"Australia allocated $2.3 billion annually to the official
development market through AusAid, and is ranked 15th amongst the OECD
(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries in
that market," he said.

Adelaide companies including Austraining International, Sagric
International and Halliburton/KBR spoke to businesses attending the forum about
their activities overseas and potential opportunities for subcontractor
companies.

 In September last year, while PM Howard told Iraq about how much increased aid Australia would supply, KBR were advertising internationally for a foreign aid director.  At the same time Mr Howard was co-chairing a meeting withPresident Bush and the Prime Minister of India to set up a  UN World Democracy Fund.  Howard said at a September interview that I think the focus on the expansion of democracy and providing a
democratic underpinning to policy is very welcome indeed and to many of
us it seems long overdue.

How much of the aid money going to Adelaide industry will be spent according to a nation's compliance with Bush's form of Democracy .

What was the trade-off to get India to engage as a co-chair of George's plain- sale to India of South Australia's uranium, an international migration program to alleviate India's overcrowding and solve SA's population shortage?  Perhaps both.

Premier Rann reiterated today that he wouldn't allow uranium sales to India unless it signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.   How will Dubya force Rann's compliance.?