AN INDEPENDENT Scotland would distribute an international aid budget of £1.5 billion a year under plans outlined by the SNP's External Affairs Minister Humza Yousaf.
Mr Yousaf said Scotland would aim to spend 1% of national income helping some of the world's poorest countries.
The pledge equates to about £1.5bn, based on an estimated gross national income of £150bn.
Mr Yousaf said: "We would essentially go from having a budget as we have now of £9 million ... to a budget of hundreds of millions." He said the aim would be to invest 1% of national income, significantly higher than the 0.7% target accepted by most European countries, including Britain.
Most aid is distributed through the UK Government's Department for International Development, which has an £8bn budget.
However, successive Holyrood administrations have set aside a relatively small amount for overseas projects. The cash is directed to a number of countries with links to Scotland, including Malawi.
Opposition MSPs claimed spending cuts at home or tax rises would be required to fund an increased international aid budget.
Scots Tory deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said: "The SNP is up to the same old trick of simply plucking a figure out of thin air in an attempt to curry favour with the electorate."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article