Bill Wilson MSP

19 March 2008 UPDATE:  Since the press release below was published, the High Court has thrown out Exxon Mobil's request that PDVSA's assets in the UK be frozen.  Dr Wilson was delighted to support this Scottish Parliament motion:

Short Title: ExxonMobil and Venezuelan Oil Assets

S3M-01604 Jamie Hepburn (Central Scotland) (SNP): That the Parliament welcomes the decision by the High Court in London to suspend an earlier court order that froze US $12 billion (£6 billion) of the assets of Venezuela’s state oil firm, PDVSA; notes the comments of the Venezuelan Ambassador to the United Kingdom, who said that ExxonMobil had been using courts outside Venezuela to conduct a “campaign of harassment against PDVSA around the world”, and calls on all multi-national companies to respect the sovereign rights of countries to manage their natural resources as they see fit.

Read the background story. 

Press Release: 

MSP Appalled by International Resistance to Venezuelan Poverty Relief

Dr Bill Wilson, MSP for the West of Scotland, has signed a statement supporting the Venezuelan Government’s objection to the injunction granted to ExxonMobil by an English court to freeze £6.14bn of a Venezuelan oil company’s assets.  Dr Wilson urges the international community to recognise and support the Venezuelan effort to relieve poverty in Venezuela.

SCOTTISH/ZAMBIAN INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT:  CONSERVATION AND EDUCATION TO END POVERTY AND UNDER-AGE MARRIAGE

Dr Bill Wilson, SNP MSP for the West of Scotland, recently hosted a presentation at the Scottish Parliament by speakers from the University of Glasgow and the Kasanka Community Project in Zambia on their innovative work seeking to integrate human development with environmental conservation in the economically deprived but environmentally diverse Kasanka region of Zambia.