§ Ms Christine RussellTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what progress has been made on debt cancellation for HIPC countries by multi-lateral financial institutions. [38087]
§ Clare Short25 countries have so far qualified for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. Ghana reached its Decision Point this week, and up to five more countries could be taken by the Boards of the IMF and world bank by the end of the year. Of the 25 countries, 21 have reached Decision Point and are receiving interim debt relief and four have completed the HIPC process, and are receiving full debt relief. We hope that a further five will reach their Completion Point in the336W next six months. Multilateral financial institutions account for some US$13.7 billion in net present value terms of the HIPC debt relief to these countries. The World Bank is co-ordinating this with the other multilateral financial institutions.