Brown throws down debt gauntlet

[Prozac the Robert]

Brown throws down debt gauntlet
The UK has pledged to pay 10% of the developing world's foreign debt bill in a bid to fight poverty.

Chancellor Gordon Brown, on a week-long tour of Africa, has signed the first of an expected 70 debt relief deals with Tanzania later on Friday.

"What we offer to Tanzania today we offer to the whole developing world tomorrow.

"We make this offer unilaterally but we are now asking other countries to join us," he told reporters.

Burden

He said the UK would make a similar offer to 70 countries around the world.

The UK has already cancelled its bilateral debts - money the UK alone is owed - with the world's poorest nations including Tanzania.

Mr Brown said action was now needed to tackle debts with lenders such as the IMF and World Bank.

But his proposals have met with a mixed reaction, with some critics, including former international development secretary Clare Short, questioning the effectiveness of debt relief as a means of tackling poverty.

Mr Brown said Britain would agree to pay 10% of Tanzania's repayments to the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank, which amounts to about £3.5m a year.

"Although there is no international agreement yet, Britain will relieve those countries still under the burden of this debt by paying our share - 10% - of their payments to the World Bank and African Development Bank in their stead."

The chancellor arrived in the Tanzanian capital Dar-es-Salaam on Wednesday, where he has visited education and health projects. He also travelled to the town of Dodoma where he visited a centre for people with HIV/AIDS.

'Not world changing'

Mr Brown's pledge was welcomed by Clare Short but she said it was a "controversial" policy not backed by every country.

"If debts owing the World Bank are written off, there is less money to give to others and there are some very poor countries without debt, so you have got to be careful about being fair."

Debt relief was increasingly being seen as a "mystical solution" to poverty, "when in fact it is just the equivalent of giving aid", she added.

"It is a good thing, but it is not world changing," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

'Marshall Plan'

Ms Short, who quit the government over the war in Iraq, said the biggest cause of poverty in Africa was "failed states" such as Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Debt relief and aid alone without really strong action to end conflict, arms supply, start building order, the basic institutions of a state, leave the poor outside the whole development system," she added.

Mr Brown is due to visit Mozambique and South Africa, where he will attend a meeting of Commission for Africa, Tony Blair's organisation to boost development in the continent.

The chancellor has already unveiled proposals for a G8 aid package which he has likened to the Marshall Plan used by the United States to rebuild Europe after World War Two.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/u ... 173567.stm

Published: 2005/01/14 12:20:21 GMT

© BBC MMV

I'm quite proud. We're actually doing something good, and trying to get other countries to follow us.

[Crown]

This is wholey a good move, but it would also be prudent to cancel debts quid pro quo style; reduce corruption in your government, we'll cancel debts kinda thing.

[HemlockGrey]

3.5 million quid doesn't seem like a lot of dough, but if they're paying 10 percent of the entire developing world's debt, it'll add up. How the hell can Britain afford to hemmorhage money like that?

[Col. Crackpot]

3.5 million quid doesn't seem like a lot of dough, but if they're paying 10 percent of the entire developing world's debt, it'll add up. How the hell can Britain afford to hemmorhage money like that?

many of those countries will piss through that money faster than you can say Kalashnikov.

[BlkbrryTheGreat]

Good for the British, now they can pay for the palaces of worthless leaders in other countries too.

[Prozac the Robert]

3.5 million quid doesn't seem like a lot of dough, but if they're paying 10 percent of the entire developing world's debt, it'll add up. How the hell can Britain afford to hemmorhage money like that?

Apparently it'll cost us a billion, which is less than spent on Iraq. We seemed to do ok without that money.

Good for the British, now they can pay for the palaces of worthless leaders in other countries too.

So your alternative is to just let the people there suffer? Good idea.

This is wholey a good move, but it would also be prudent to cancel debts quid pro quo style; reduce corruption in your government, we'll cancel debts kinda thing.

The condition is that the money is to be spent on health, education and welfare. I guess we'll stop if they don't comply.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4177603.stm