Bilateral lending and tied aid credits in particular are often criticized because the instrument serves the interest of the lender more than those of the borrower. This topic lies between two policy fields: export promotion and development cooperation. Per definition, export credits are not eligible for official development assistance (ODA) but government subsidies to these credits for developmental purposes can be reported as ODA grant. By means of economic theory, the thesis assesses and

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... cally discusses whether tied aid credits are conducive to finance development and to which extent the regulatory framework, the Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits, reflects developing countries' needs. The analysis finds that providing concessional loans for good development projects that would otherwise not be financed are economically justified. Financing should not be tied to procurement from the donor country and in order to be developmentally sound procurement from the recipient country should be maximized. In a second step, statistical data is analyzed to demonstrate the importance of tied aid credits as an instrument of development finance, further leading to a discussion of the reporting practices of tied aid credits. The analysis finds that few countries benefit from the instrument. Therefore it is questionable whether tied aid credits benefit those countries most in need of external financing. Overall, the analysis was limited by insufficient access to comprehensive data, which is vital for in depth evaluation, transparency, and accountability.