§ Mr. Laurence RobertsonTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the proposals the Government is making on writing off Third World debt. [30267]
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§ Mrs. Liddell[holding answer 23 February 1998]: The Government are fully committed to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative that was launched by the IMF and World Bank in September 1996. In his speech to Commonwealth Finance Ministers in Mauritius last year, the Chancellor called on the international community to commit itself to dealing with the problem of unsustainable debt burdens faced by the world's poorest countries once and for all. He urged creditors and debtors to undertake concrete action in order to ensure that at least three-quarters of the twenty countries, initially identified by the World Bank and IMF as probably needing debt relief under HIPC initiative, have had decisions on the size and timing of their relief by the year 2000. The Government propose to continue their efforts to ensure that this target is met.
In the IMF and World Bank Executive Boards, we have actively supported debt relief under the HIPC initiative for the four countries that have so far had decisions—Uganda, Bolivia, Burkina Faso and Guyana. The Government have also taken a lead in pressing for action to help another indebted country, Mozambique. We have offered to provide up to $10 million to help Mozambique achieve debt sustainability on top of the debt relief and assistance that the UK has already committed.