Russia has offered to write off 558,48 million US dollar worth of debts to six African nations, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said Thursday.
Russia offered to write off
– 11,75 million dollar owed by Benin,
– 162,8 million owed by Ethiopia (once a staunch Sovjet ally),
– 102,45 million owed by Madagascar,
– 148,6 million owed by Mozambique,
– 20,86 million owed by Tanzania, and
– 12,2 million owed by Zambia.
The debt relief was offered under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, Storchak said.
Russia may also offer to write off 350 million dollar worth of debts to five other countries, namely Burundi, Republic of Congo (tidl. Fransk Congo), Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome & Principe, and Chad, Storchak said.
He noted, however, that some of the countries may opt for smaller write-offs and completely forego (stå udenfor) the initiative, as it requires them to finance education, healthcare or other eligible purposes with the relieved funds.
The Group of Eight (G8) industrialized countries, which Russia is part of, agreed to write off up to 55 billion US dollar of poor countries debts at a summit in Scotland in July 2005. Of the total, Russia pledged to write off 2,2 billion dollar.
Russian officials said subsequently that some of these debts had already been written off. In February, Alexei Kudrin said that Russia planned to write off the 688 million dollar debt of 16 poor countries, most of them African, as part of the initiative.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
