[stop-imf] NO NEW DEBT RELIEF PLAN AT G8, OFFICIAL SAYS

[Robert Weissman]

>From the World Bank's development news press review, July 20, 2001

NO NEW DEBT RELIEF PLAN AT G8, OFFICIAL SAYS.

G8 countries will announce no new initiatives to cancel Third World debt
despite mounting calls for action by anti-poverty campaigners ahead of
this weekend's annual summit, Reuters reports a G8 official said on
Thursday.

"There are not going to be additional measures (on debt) but we are trying
to respond to the problems of poor countries by starting up a global
health fund," the official said ahead of the July 20-22 summit of
industrialized nations. "This will maybe be the only major concrete result
of the Genoa summit,"  he said.

Debt campaigners plan to march outside the security perimeter on Saturday
to press their demands for a bolder debt write-off than the one agreed at
a G8 summit two years ago. "People are fed up with hearing about grand
schemes from the G8. New initiatives without making good on previous
promises is irresponsible," said Lucy Matthew of action group Drop the
Debt.


The G8 official said the world's economic powers had already made a
significant contribution to debt relief and it was not a case of throwing
money at the world's debt problem. "There is a lot developing countries
can do in terms of good governance, not wasting money for military
build-up," he said.

In a separate report, Reuters writes that South African President Thabo
Mbeki stepped up a call for debt write-off for the world's poorest nations
on Thursday.

"The goal must be complete debt write-off," Mbeki told Reuters in an
interview during a two-day stop in Rome, where he met G8 foreign ministers
for talks.

"Writing off debt has an immediate impact on a country's ability to trade,
to export its assets to earn revenue, which can they be used to improve
infrastructure or education, rather than paying to write off debts," he
said.

La Tribune (France, p.3) and Le Figaro (France, p.2) also reports.

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