§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development pursuant to her answer to the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam of 26 March, concerning debt stock reductions, how many of the qualifying HIPC countries have started to receive their debt relief. [106110]
§ Clare ShortTo date, 26 countries out of a total of 37 eligible countries have qualified for relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, and will receive over US$62 billion in debt relief. Of these, eight countries (Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda) have reached Completion Point. At this stage, they receive an irrevocable reduction in their stock of debt. The remaining 18 (Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Zambia) are receiving interim relief on their debt servicing payments. During this stage of the process, these countries are no longer required to make any further payments on the debt to be written off. We expect most of the remaining 18 countries to reach Completion Point within the next two years when they, too, will receive irrevocable debt relief. It is difficult to predict when the other 11 countries will qualify for HIPC relief, as many are still affected by conflict or severe governance problems. We expect the Democratic Republic of Congo to reach its Decision Point when the Transitional Government is installed and the Central African Republic, Comoros and Cote d'lvoire to do so later this year if appropriate progress is made. The remaining countries (Burundi, Congo Republic, Liberia, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Togo) are a long way from qualifying, as they are affected by conflict or have serious governance concerns. But if the Sudan peace makes progress then debt relief will be made available to Sudan.