§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What steps they are taking to reduce the external debt of the Government of Tanzania to make possible higher expenditure in that country on health and education, while limiting military spending; and whether and when Tanzania will benefit from the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC). [HL2673]
§ Lord McIntosh of HaringeyThe Government support debt relief for the world's poorest countries under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. Last September the Chancellor made proposals for the speedy and effective implementation of the HIPC initiative in a speech known as the Mauritius Mandate. Many of these proposals were agreed upon by the G8 at the recent summit meetings, including the Chancellor's suggestions that new export credits to HIPCs should be used for productive expenditure. Tanzania has not yet reached its decision point under the HIPC initiative and so it is not possible to say at present whether or not it will benefit from further debt reductions under the initiative.
The UK has already written off over £40 million of Tanzanian external debt. The Government have also donated over £15 million to Tanzania to use towards its debt service obligations to the international financial institutions. Following agreement between the British Government and the Government of Tanzania, another £10,000 of its debts due to ECGD have been written off with money donated by the British public.