Source:
IFIs Latin American Monitor
Wed Nov 22 2006
At the meeting held on November 17 in Washington, the IDB Committee of Governors reached an agreement to partially cancel the debt owed by Bolivia, Guyana, Nicaragua, Honduras and Haiti. The amount to be relieved still remains to be defined; however, none of the proposals addresses the commitment undertaken by the G8 to cancel 100 per cent of debts.
At the meeting held on Friday, November 17, in Washington D.C., the IDB Committee of Governors agreed to partially cancel the debt owed by the five poorest Latin American countries: Bolivia, Guyana, Nicaragua, Honduras and Haiti. However, this only supposes a further step on the road towards the effective cancellation since the amount to be cancelled still remains to be defined and there still remain two new instances in order to meet the goal: a new meeting of the Committee of Governors to be held in the Netherlands (January 2007) and the final approval by the IDB Board of Governors at the next Annual Meeting that will take place in Guatemala (March 2007).
In an internal report submitted to the Committee for consideration, two alternatives with regards to the amounts to be cancelled were proposed. The different amounts account for the cut-off date for cancellation: December 2003 or December 2004. The latter deadline would be cancelling 3.5 million dollars and was used by the IMF to grant the relief promised by the G8 at the 2005 Gleneagles Summit. However, both deadlines are far from the 100 per cent relief promised by presidents at the same meeting.
Another highly questioned topic is the decision made with regards to Haiti, since the resolution of the Committee leaves debt cancellation subject to the completion of the HIPC process, which implies the implementation of structural reforms and the approval of an economic programme by the IMF.
Social organizations campaigning in favor of total debt cancellation for these five Latin American countries welcomed this announcement, but also expressed its critical aspects. The possibility of achieving this goal before December 31 was part of their plans, on account of which they will continue their work aiming at a prompt and favorable resolution.
Related Information:
* IDB approves partial debt cancellation for five countries of the region, by Latindadd, Fundación Jubileo (Bolivia) and Red Jubileo Perú (pdf format)
* G8 debt deal expands to include Inter-American Development Bank - Eurodad analysis
* Latin American HIPCs to get further multilateral debt relief, by Celine Tan pusblished at SUNS
* IDB Governors reach agreement on debt relief for Bolivia, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua - IDB press release
* IDB OK's massive debt relief package for five nations, by Pablo Bachelet (Miami Herald)
* Jubilee USA welcomes IDB decision to cancel debts of five Latin American countries - press release
* Civil society organizations demand IDB debt cancellation for the poorest countries
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