§ Mr. Laurence RobertsonTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the Third World countries which are financially indebted to the United Kingdom, breaking down the figures to show those organisations owed money; and if he will make a statement. [47750]
§ Mrs. Liddell[holding answer 30 June 1998]: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Stone (Mr. Cash) on 23 June 1998, Official Report, columns 453–54.
§ Mr. LoveTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which HIPC countries have embarked on the process of debt relief; which will embark on the process(a) before and (b) after 2000 under the Mauritius Mandate; and if he will make a statement. [48437]
§ Mrs. LiddellOf the twenty countries currently thought to be eligible for additional debt relief under the HIPC initiative, sixteen have embarked on the process of securing that debt relief. These are: Bolivia, Burkina Faso,324W Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
The Mauritius Mandate expressed the hope that all twenty of the countries eligible for additional HIPC relief will have embarked on the process before the year 2000. At the Birmingham Summit in May, the G8 agreed that it would encourage debtor countries to meet this challenge.
§ Mr. LoveTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which countries have benefited from debt reductions under the HIPC Initiative; what level of debt relief each has received in(a) nominal and (b) NPV terms; and if he will list the other countries that are expected to benefit from the Initiative. [48439]
§ Mrs. LiddellTo date six countries have received decisions on the level and timing of their debt relief under the HIPC initiative: Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guyana, Mozambique and Uganda. Of these six, only Uganda has so far reached its completion point and thus received actual debt relief. In April this year it received $347 million in additional debt relief in NPV terms under the HIPC initiative. This is equivalent to about $650 million in nominal terms.
There is no definitive list of eligible countries, but IMF estimates suggest that Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Tanzania and Zambia are also likely to be eligible for debt relief under the HIPC initiative.
§ Mr. LoveTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what additional resources are planned to be made available through the Mauritius Mandate in addition to those under the HIPC Initiative for each country affected in(a) nominal and (b) NPV terms; what is the timetable for securing a sustainable exit for each country; and if he will make a statement. [48438]
§ Mrs. LiddellThe Mauritius Mandate sets targets for the speedy and determined implementation of the HIPC initiative. Debt relief given to poor countries under the HIPC initiative is additional to the debt relief given previously by bilateral creditors. The amount of this additional HIPC debt relief is determined at the decision point. To date $3 billion in NPV terms has been pledged to six countries under the initiative. The table shows the debt relief in NPV and nominal terms, that has so far been pledged to these countries and their likely completion points at which their debt burdens will be reduced to sustainable levels.
HIPC Additional HIPC debt relief pledged (NPV terms) in $ million Additional HIPC debt relief pledged (nominal terms) in $ million Completion point Burkina Faso 115 200 April 2000 Bolivia 448 600 September 1998 Cote d'Ivoire 345 800 March 2001 Guyana 253 500 December 1998 Mozambique 1,487 2,900 Summer 1999 Uganda 347 650 7 April 1998 The Mauritius Mandate aims to ensure that three quarters of the countries that are presently thought to 325W require additional debt relief under the HIPC initiative will have had decisions on the level and timing of that relief by the millennium.
§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the total revenue which will be raised for the alleviation of third world debt as a result of tax allowances announced in the Budget. [48085]
§ Dawn Primarolo[holding answer 1 July 1998]: The reliefs announced in the Budget are for charitable projects in the world's poorest countries for education and relief of poverty, not directly for repayment of their debt.