§ Mr. DavidsonTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 5 February 2001,Official Report, column 413W, on indebted countries, if he will update the figures and list the countries for whom debt has been written off by Britain, together with the amounts written off in each case. [158821]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonAs previously outlined, the UK has, and is, writing off debt through multilateral initiatives such as the HIPC initiative, and through additional bilateral initiatives.
342WUnder the HIPC initiative, the UK stands ready to write off all £1.9 billion still owed to the UK by the 41 countries potentially eligible. This is in addition to the £400 million of ECGD debt already written off under previous initiatives, and the £350 million of aid debt already written off for HIPCs. Interim relief is also being given to these countries on around £60 million of debt formerly held by CDC plc.
Since 5 February, no further countries have reached Decision Point or Completion Point, and so the position remains unchanged. The World Bank and IMF produce regular updates of progress of countries towards Decision Point. The latest report, "HIPC Progress Report" (dated April 2001), is available on the World Bank website.
As previously specified, the UK is holding all further payments from HIPC countries in trust, and as such is not benefiting financially from the debts of these countries.