4 Feb 2015

Cooks Minister dismisses concerns over China aid

8:27 pm on 4 February 2015

The Cook Islands finance minister says opposition criticism of aid from China is naive and shows a lack of understanding.

Mark Brown says comments from Democratic Party MPs criticising a multi million donation of machinery is simply political posturing.

The opposition had questioned whether the machinery, intended for the outer islands, would be maintained or left to rust.

The Cook Islands News reports Mr Brown saying that while it would not have been economically viable for his government to provide such costly equipment to the outer islands, it was able to get the backing of China for it.

The machinery is to be maintained by Chinese technicians for the first 12 months and thereafter another firm will provide after sales service with spare parts held in Rarotonga.