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Momodou
Denmark
11634 Posts |
 Posted - 01 Feb 2008 : 22:12:32
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D11.64 Million Debt Cancelled
The Paris-Club Creditor Countries Cancelled US 11.64 Million Of US $40 Million Owed To Them As Their Share Of The Debt Relief Granted The Gambia Within The Framework Of The Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, a press release issued by the Department of State for Finance indicates. According to the release, following the Declaration by the Boards of the IMF and the World Bank, in December, 2007, that The Gambia reached its Completion Point under the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor countries (HIPC) Initiative and became eligible for debt relief under the scheme and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI ), The Gambia Government and representatives of the Governments of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway and The United Kingdom referred to as “Participating Paris Club creditor countries” met on 24 January, 2008 in order to finalize cancellation of the Paris Club’s share of the debt relief within the framework of the enhanced HIPC initiative, as calculated in the Completion point report.
The release confirmed as follows:
1) The stock of debt due to Paris Club creditor by the Republic of The Gambia was estimated to be around U$$ 40 million as of 1‘ December 2007. In order to contribute to restore the debt sustainability of the Republic of The Gambia, participating Paris-Club creditor countries decided to cancel U$$ 11.64million, [On all loans signed and disbursed from their group of creditors before July, 1986] in its entirety and part of the post-cut off date debt-,(i.e. loans signed and disbursed after the cut-off date July, 1986) were also, cancelled and forgiven. Bilateral agreements with the affected Paris Club creditor countries are to be signed by end June 2008 to operationalise this Paris Club Agreement. In the agreements concluded, Austria will provide Naple’s Terms treatment by cancelling 86% of debt servicing flow and the remaining 14% to be paid on due dates. However, France excludes loans to Gamtel and GRTS from its debt relief treatment and the recently signed Loans for the Global Maritime Disaster and Safety System Project from Belgium and the Greater Banjul Water Supply Project from ING, Netherlands are also excluded from debt relief treatment.
2) The Republic of The Gambia is committed to allocate the resources freed by this debt treatment to priority areas identified in the country’s poverty reduction strategy. The authorities of the Republic of The Gambia are committed also to seek comparable treatment from all their other external creditors.”
The Gambian delegation was led by the Secretary of State for Finance and Economic Affairs.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 14/2008, 1 – 3 February2008
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