HC Deb 03 February 1999 vol 324 cc636-7W
13. Mr. McAllion

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent discussions she has had with voluntary organisations in relation to the reduction of the debt burden on developing countries. [67518]

Clare Short

In December, I met the directors of the voluntary organisations which comprise the British Overseas Aid Group (BOAG)—ActionAid, Oxfam, the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development (CAFOD), Christian Aid and Save the Children Fund. Also in December, I met BOND—which represents the smaller NGOs. They agreed with the need to develop and strengthen the link between debt relief and poverty reduction and welcomed the fact that we are pressing for this issue to be considered during the forthcoming comprehensive review of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Debt Initiative, and for civil society in developing countries to be involved in the review.

22. Mr. Pike

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what discussions she has had with the new German Government about debt relief and poverty reduction. [67528]

Clare Short

I met the German Development Minister in Bonn in November last year. The discussions covered poverty reduction, debt relief and a number of other development issues. I was pleased to find a new convergence of UK and German views on development policies. In December, officials from my Department and the Treasury followed up in discussions with their German counterparts proposals for taking forward the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC).

24. Mr. David Heath

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what discussions she has had with ministers of the German Government concerning an initiative on debt relief for developing countries at the European Council meeting in Cologne. [67530]

Clare Short

I met the German Development Minister and her officials in Bonn in November last year. The discussions covered poverty reduction, debt relief and a number of other development issues. We shall continue to work closely with the German government during their Presidency of the European Union and of the G8 on their proposals for debt relief, which are similar to those in our own Mauritius Mandate.

25. Mr. Jim Cunningham

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps she is taking to reduce the debts of the poorest countries. [67531]

Clare Short

The Chancellor and I are working to see international agreement to speed up the implementation of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt initiative so that all eligible countries will be on track for debt relief by 2000. We are pressing for this and other key issues, including the level of debt relief and the link to poverty reduction, to be examined during the comprehensive review of the HIPC initiative which is to report by July this year. Over the past two years, the Department for International Development (DFID) has cancelled some £30 million of bilateral aid debts and provided some £36 million to help the African Development Bank meet its share of the cost of implementing the HIPC debt initiative. We are also providing around £100 million to help a number of developing countries meet their debt service payments to international financial institutions. In addition, DFID is providing technical assistance in debt management to poor countries and funding research on the key issues of debt sustainability and internal debt. In the run-up to the Cologne Summit, we are working closely with the German government, whose proposals for debt relief are similar to those in our own Mauritius Mandate.

Mr. Streeter

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what plans she has to support the recent initiative of the German Chancellor on debt relief for developing nations. [68098]

Clare Short

We welcome the recent German proposals for debt relief. In many of their elements, they reinforce the Mauritius Mandate, launched by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in September 1997. It is encouraging to see that the German proposals call for the cancellation of aid loans to Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) but we should like to see them extending aid debt relief to more countries.

My greatest concern remains that debt relief should be linked to poverty reduction. This aspiration was contained in Chancellor Schroeder's proposals. We have pressed that the IMF/World Bank review of HIPC should give more emphasis to the link between debt relief and poverty reduction.