§ Dr. TongeTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what discussions her Department has had with the IMF and World bank concerning debt relief to Rwanda; and if she will make a statement. [42878]
§ Clare ShortRwanda's debt burden is severe, and one of a number of constraints on the Government's capacity to make progress towards achieving the poverty reduction targets. On 19 May, I convened an informal meeting in Brussels to discuss how external assistance could help relieve these constraints. The IMF and World bank were represented. These discussions will continue at a donars' meeting that the Government of Rwanda and the World bank will hold in Stockholm on 2–3 June. At that meeting, Britain will announce a significant contribution to a new multi-donor debt trust fund designed to ease Rwanda's debt burden in the period leading up to eligibility under the heavily indebted poor countries initiative become available.
Leaders at the G8 Summit in Birmingham recognised the need to respond to the exceptional needs of poor post-conflict countries such as Rwanda as they rebuild their political, economic and social systems, and agreed that, particularly for those countries with arrears to the international financial institutions, there was a need for debt relief mechanisms to be used to release more resources, and more quickly, for essential rehabilitation. We shall be pressing for this work to be taken forward urgently.
§ Dr. TongeTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate she has made of the cost to her Department of the accelerated programme of debt relief proposed under the Mauritius mandate. [42879]
§ Clare ShortThe main element of the Mauritius mandate is to press for faster implementation of the heavily indebted poor countries debt initiative. To help achieve this aim, the Department for International Development is prepared to contribute to international efforts to ensure speedy debt relief to HIPC countries. We have contributed $10.5 million to help Uganda, have pledged $10 million to help Mozambique, and may contribute to others, but at this stage it is not possible to quantify the total likely cost.
As part of the mandate, I indicated that I was willing to cancel the remaining aid debts owed to the UK Government by lower-income Commonwealth countries, provided the poor benefited from this action. The potential cost of this is up to £132 million. The mandate also signalled our readiness to finance through the aid programme technical assistance to poor countries, particularly those in the Commonwealth, to assist in debt management. We are providing over £750,000-worth of 461W technical assistance to the Governments of Tanzania and Nepal for this purpose. We have also agreed to contribute £400,000 to the core costs of Debt Relief International, an organisation that provides technical assistance in debt management to HIPC countries.