Commonwealth Ministers help poorer nations with debt burden
12 March 2004
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| HIPC members visit to the house of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone |
Ways to relieve the debt burden of some of the world's poorest countries were identified at an HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) meeting in Sierra Leone earlier this month.
Finance ministers from Commonwealth countries and representatives from the IMF, the World Bank and the Commonwealth Foundation acknowledged that the low rate of public and private investment impacted on the performance of HIPC countries. They noted that the economies of poorer nations were heavily reliant on a small number of vulnerable products, and if diversification into new sectors was encouraged, this would lead to increased stability. The ministers agreed that freer access to the markets of developed nations for their products was needed. The removal of tariffs and non-tariff barriers would contribute to the expansion of trade in HIPC nations.
Commenting on the meeting, the Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon, said, "The relief provided through the HIPC Initiative has released considerable resources for priority expenditures, particularly in the health and education sectors in some of the poorest countries in the world. However, the current framework is not providing long-term debt sustainability even for those countries that have reached completion point. It is, therefore, most timely that the Commonwealth HIPC Ministerial Forum has addressed this issue at its meeting in Freetown and agreed upon a number of specific actions necessary to improve the prospects for the long-term debt sustainability of the HIPCs."
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