Boss paid $2.6m to help the poor

LONDON - As the boss of the publicly owned company which invests billions of pounds of British taxpayers' money to alleviate global poverty, Richard Laing is one of many dedicated to improving the finances of the poorest of the poor.

But few engaged in the battle to relieve the suffering of the developing world can count on a pay package of nearly 1 million ($2.6 million) as their reward.

The "extraordinary" remuneration received by Laing as chief executive of CDC Group Plc, which is owned by the Department for International Development and controls assets worth 2.7 billion, is revealed in a report by the Westminster spending watchdog.

Between 2003 and 2007, Laing, a 55-year-old Cambridge engineering graduate, saw his income rise from 383,000 to 970,000 as investments in projects from a Nigerian shopping centre to a Chinese egg producer reaped handsome returns.

MPs said the 250 per cent increase in Laing's pay had been given without CDC producing sufficient evidence that its investments were reducing global poverty.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said that CDC, which was set up in 1948, had delivered an impressive financial performance, almost tripling the value of its assets from 1.1 billion in 2004.

- INDEPENDENT