§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will support the proposal in the draft Programme of Action for the forthcoming Social Summit in Copenhagen that national reports on social development should be sent to the Economic and Social Council of the UN; and whether they will complement this suggested arrangement by proposing that regular similar reports be submitted from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Chalker of Wallasey):We expect the Economic and Social Council to be responsible for co-ordinating follow-up to the summit with other international economic and social organisations such as those referred to. It is too early to comment on the detail of this, but we will participate actively.
§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
What will be their position at the forthcoming social summit in Copenhagen on the need to ensure immediate implementation of the Trinidad Terms proposal to reduce by two-thirds the eligible debt stock of severely indebted low-income countries as a first step towards a comprehensive write-off between 80 per cent. and 100 per cent. of the entire debt stock of such countries.
§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey:Implementation of Trinidad Terms was agreed in principle in December 1994. We pressed for up to 80 per cent. reductions, in exceptional cases, for eligible official bilateral debt, but there was no consensus among creditors to go beyond 67 per cent.
We welcome agreement by the Paris Club on 20 February to offer a stock of debt reduction to Uganda under these terms. I am delighted that a Commonwealth 2WA country is the first to benefit in this way from my right honourable friend the Prime Minister's initiative.
§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
What will be their position at the forthcoming social summit in Copenhagen on the need to ensure special consideration for those developing countries whose multilateral debt constitutes an important part of their total debt and what will be their position in this respect on their own proposal for the limited sale of International Monetary Fund gold stocks.
§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey:My right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed limited sale of IMF gold stocks as part of his initiative on multilateral debt. We shall encourage participants at the summit to support his initiative.
The next step for the Multilateral Debt Initiative will be to secure support from other members of the IMF and World Bank. We intend to pursue this at the Institutions' spring meetings in April.
§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
What will be their position at the forthcoming social summit in Copenhagen on the proposal that all donor countries should establish a five-year timetable for increasing their overseas development aid to gross national product ratio towards the United Nations target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product.
§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey:At the social summit in Copenhagen we will reaffirm our agreement to the UN target of 0.7 per cent. of GNP for official development assistance, but not to a timetable for reaching it.
§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
What will be their position at the forthcoming social summit in Copenhagen on the need to improve the quality of aid by reducing the proportion which is tied by donor governments to the purchase of goods and services from their own countries.
§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey:We support measures aimed at improving the quality of aid, including increased untying by donors together. The social development summit is unlikely to be a suitable forum for pursuing aid tying issues.