MATTHEW LEE, Washington | Tuesday 7.00pm.
A YEAR after his landmark trip to Africa, United States President Bill Clinton on Tuesday urged the international community to forgive $70-billion in debts owed to it by African countries.
Clinton announced the proposal at the opening session of a US-Africa ministerial meeting at the state department at which ministers from some 46 of Africa’s Sub-Saharan nations are gathered with top US officials. “Today I ask the international community to take action which could result in forgiving $70-billion in global debt,”Clinton said.
“Our goal is to ensure that no country committed to fundamental reform is left with a debt burden that keeps it from meeting its people’s basic human needs and spurring growth. We should provide extraordinary relief for countries making extraordinary efforts to build working economies,” Clinton said.
He unveiled a six-point program to be presented at next summit of the G7 group of industrialized countries in Cologne in June through which the debt reduction will be achieved.
Under his plan, the United Nations’ Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative would be substantially revamped to allow early debt relief, complete forgiveness of all bilateral, concessional loans to the poorest countries and deeper reduction of other bilateral debts.
The proposals also call for donor countries to provide at least 90 percent of new their development aid on a grant basis to countries eligible for debt relief and increasing the World Bank’s Africa Trust Fund in part through International Monetary Fund gold sales. — AFP