§ Mr. KidneyTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what progress has been made towards the goal set out in the G8' s Birmingham Communiqu" of all the heavily indebted poor countries being admitted to the HIPC initiative by the year 2000. [66742]
§ Ms HewittSixteen out of the 20 countries originally identified by the World Bank/IMF as eligible for HIPC debt relief have embarked on the process: Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Four have not: Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar and Sao Tome and Principe.
§ Mr. KidneyTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent amendments to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative have been made to give further support to post-conflict and post-catastrophe countries. [67037]
§ Ms HewittAt the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank in October, the decision was made to allow IMF post conflict assistance programmes to count towards a country's track record under the HIPC initiative. This could bring decision point (and therefore debt relief) forward by up to 12 months for certain countries, including Rwanda.
Following Hurricane Mitch, the Chancellor secured several measures to help mitigate the debt services burdens of post-catastrophe countries, including the establishment of an IMF/World Bank Trust Fund. The UK contributed £10 million to this. In December the UK 222W participated in a Paris Club agreement which granted a three year moratorium on debt service payments from Honduras and Nicaragua.