§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development which countries taking part in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative have reached completion point within the timescale established at their decision point. [147391]
Mr. Gareth ThomasWhen the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative was launched in 1999, the fixed three-year performance period of the original HIPC framework was replaced by a 'floating' Completion Point. This means that Completion Point is triggered by the successful implementation of a set of pre-defined reform measures, rather than a set period of time. The Decision Point documents for HIPC countries give a prediction of when a country is expected to meet the floating Completion Point triggers, but these time-scales are intended to be only rough estimates. Of the nine countries that have reached Completion Point, only two (Mauritania and Uganda) did so at the date that had been predicted. Two further countries (Tanzania and Mozambique) reached Completion Point within five months of the date predicted at Decision Point. The remaining five countries (Mali, Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso and Guyana) missed their predicted Completion Point date by at least a year. Delay in reaching Completion Point is mostly due to poor policy performance. It should be noted, however, that there has been no delay to delivery of relief, as countries cease to make payments on their debt from Decision Point.