Africa's debt cancellation, 'not enough by itself', Moroccan FM
Regional, Politics, 6/14/2005

Although praiseworthy, the cancellation of the poorest African countries' debt is not enough by itself, deemed, in Doha Monday, the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation

Mohamed Benaissa made this statement at the end of a meeting in preparation of the 2nd Summit of the heads of state and government of the G-77 plus China due in the Qatari capital June 15-16.

The finance ministers of the G8 (the UK, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Germany, the US and Russia) decided on Saturday to immediately cancel the total 40 bln usd debt of 18 of the poorest countries to the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

The countries concerned, most of them African, are Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

The Moroccan Minister insisted on the need to work out a program that takes into account the social and economic development of the poorest countries, and called on the developed countries not to subsidize products they export towards developing nations and to grant them preferential regimes.

The cancellation of the debt was welcomed as a "huge step in the right direction" by African leaders.

In May an African Union conference of Economy and Finance Ministers in Dakar called on African leaders to suggest ways of reducing debt at the next G8 summit in the Scottish town of Gleneagles.

The The Group of 77 (G-77) was established on 15 June 1964 by seventy-seven developing countries signatories of the "Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries" issued at the end of the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva.

As the largest Third World coalition in the United Nations, the Group of 77 provides the means for the developing world to articulate and promote its collective economic interests and enhance its joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues in the United Nations system, and promote economic and technical cooperation among developing countries.

Previous Stories:
  Call for cancelling third word countries' debts   (7/16/2004)
  Portugal hails writing-off debt of LDAC by Morocco, France and Germany   (4/4/2000)
  Report: Controversy concerning African debts at African - European summit   (4/4/2000)
  Crucial steps to write off African debts   (4/4/2000)
  Africa - Europe Summit to deal with crushing debt on poor countries   (4/1/2000)

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