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Birmingham Summit :
Relief for the Poorest Countries
Paris - The summit conference of the Group of Seven plus Russia provides an opportunity this weekend to reaffirm collective willingness to make development of the poorest countries a priority.
The lesson of recent years is that policies for debt relief, poverty reduction and sustainable development must go hand in hand if world poverty is to be properly addressed.
In the poorest countries, which do not benefit from capital flows, our answer is aid for trade - helping to attract private sector investment.
On Saturday the summit will pay special attention to Africa. The heads of state or government will have before them new proposals to make progress on debt relief by the millennium.
These build on an initiative for highly indebted poor countries (HIPC), with the emphasis on sustainable development, agreed upon in Lyon in 1996.
First, world leaders will encourage and help all highly indebted poor countries to become part of the reduction process by 2000.
Second world leaders will agree on the need to pay special attention to the immediate problems of post-conflict countries.
Third, each country will now consider targeting export credits for the poorest countries only on productive expenditure.
And fourth, building on the Lyon summit, country by country, action will be taken to reduce bilateral debts.
Since the launch of the HIPC debt relief initiative, 10 countries have seen their debt situation scrutinized. For eight of them, this analysis has shown their debt to be unsustainable.
For six, firm commitments in terms of debt relief have already been pledged: Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guyana, Uganda and Mozambique.
Through these commitments, debt relief amounting to nearly $3 billion will be granted to those countries.
Against the global uniform approach often chosen in the past, the HIPC initiative favors a case-by-case approach that allows us to take into account economic and financial realities peculiar to each country.
Far from seeking a mechanical approach to eligibility, we have developed a body of criteria to be applied flexibly.
In full, the HIPC initiative should represent additional relief of $7 billion from bilateral and multilateral creditors.
This demonstrates that the HIPC initiative framework can meet the need for a case-by-case treatment of the situations that poorest countries are faced with today.
The willingness exists to seek permanent solutions to the debt problems of the poorest countries. The effort must proceed to that the HIPC initiative can benefit all the poorest countries that have carried out the necessary economic reforms.
To achieve this, it is necessary to create momentum. We have set down challenging ambitions. Our aim is that all eligible countries will have embarked by the millennium on the process of securing debt relief by agreeing on programs with the World Bank and the IMF.
We should also ensure that no country will be abandoned at the roadside. This risk affects in particular those countries emerging from conflict that cannot yet demonstrate a track record of adjustment policies.
Are they to be excluded front any exceptional relief simply because they have not been able to conclude an economic program with the IMF before the year 2000 ? Their economic and social needs cry out for early action.
We see an urgent need to explore what special treatment might be appropriate for the needs of post-conflict countries. Bilateral donors and multilateral institutions should consider the needs for debt and development assistance in the area.
Our commitment to the HIPC initiative should not mean that we confine our action to the countries that are or will be eligible. All other countries which are committing themselves courageously to the needed adjustment efforts deserve reinforced support from the international financial community.
For the middle-income countries, France and Britain have already pledged to forgive the vast majority of our bilateral debt related to development assistance. We should now focus on measures to foster their access to private capital flows.
This could lead us to strengthen debt swap operations, which have already shown their positive impact on private investment. We could also consider ways to ease the access to international capital markets for an increased number of developing countries.
The priority we attach today to a permanent solution for debt issues, especially through the HIPC initiative, is clearly in keeping with our lasting commitment to development.