They have not come to us for specific assistance under the know-how fund.

I should like to see both that and the use of know-how funds extended.

We are already backing projects in three states through the know-how fund.

We are grateful to him and to all the other people who serve on the advisory board of the know-how fund.

May I associate myself with the praise that has been heaped on the know-how fund?

Neither the know-how fund nor the announcement of the places for 1,000 secondees was part of the Washington conference.

The know-how funds, for example, are widely appreciated in the newly emerging countries in eastern Europe.

My hon. Friend knows that the know-how fund is greatly admired by other donors and is very much appreciated in eastern Europe.

We have help going in alongside the United States and German Project Hope airlift, and we have £50 million for the know-how fund.

That is why, through the know-how fund, endless new ideas and help available, which are being paid for by this country to assist with the production and distribution of food.

Did the subject of the know-how fund and the question whether there might be Russian secondees to British financial, legal and insurance firms as part of the effort arise?

Touche Ross and GMA secured the consultancy contracts and their $1.2m fees were paid from the British Know-How fund.

However, the know-how fund is doing extremely good work throughout the former Soviet republics, where we have been asked for that help, as it is in the rest of central and eastern Europe.

It is interesting to note that other countries are now copying our know-how funds because they have been of such help to the former Soviet Union and other eastern European countries.

As I made clear to the House when I answered the main question, the know-how fund has been heavily used in the Baltic republics, on which about £900,000 has been spent.

To assist victims of Chernobyl, a Western organization, the Know-How Fund, provided many Belarusian doctors with training in the latest bone-marrow techniques in Europe and the United States.

Will the Minister extend the application of the know-how fund in the Baltic states to the environmental problems that they have inherited, in particular the devastation left by the oil shale industry in Estonia?

'We won the £25,000 contract in competitive bidding through the Overseas Development Agency as part of the UK Know-How fund which has been set up to provide assistance to the countries of Eastern Europe.

"We want to help privatized Russian companies raise equity finance in an efficient and proper manner," explained Richard Wilson, a director of the Know-How Fund, a British Government program that is coaching the Russian privatization effort.

That is why we have ensured, through our know-how funds and all the other means at our disposal, that we are providing economic advice and sound advice for training members of the former republics to get on with the job of economic reform.

Enlisting the help of auditors from Deloitte & Touche and of Samuel Montagu & Company, the British-based investment banker, the Know-How Fund invested more than $1 million to help Red October organize its financing and prepare its share offering.

Will representations to other Governments be as strong as possible to encourage them to make the sort of contributions to the know-how fund and to know-how activity that is absolutely crucial for the developing economies in central and eastern Europe, and without which they will never develop democratic politics as well?

The predecessor of Corvinus University, the Budapest University of Economic Sciences (BUES) pioneered with the first MBA program in the Hungarian higher education system in 1992, in cooperation with the London Business School, supported by the British Know-How Fund.