§ Mr. Ieuan Wyn JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the levels of reduction in debt service achieved by countries that have benefited from the relief of old aid loans granted by the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydSince 1979 we have written off over £450 million, through retrospective terms adjustment, of aid loans to the poorest countries. In the period 1979–91 this, together with the rescheduling of other aid loans, translated into a £410 million reduction in debt service for the countries concerned.
We recently announced that we would also write off £56 million of aid loans to Zambia from 1 April 1993, provided their economic reform programme stays on track. In addition, we agreed to provide India with local cost aid for projects to offset repayments of past aid loans amounting to £560 million. Thus, the Government have, overall, relieved the burden of aid loans to developing countries by about £1 billion. Twenty-four countries have benefited from these measures.