India has written off the debts of all the highly indebted poor countries.

The Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Ministerial Network is another South South cooperation effort.

Today, more than 80 per cent of African States were highly indebted poor countries.

On the debt burden, we applaud debt relief for the highly indebted poor countries.

He supported the paragraphs that dealt with the questions of highly indebted developing countries.

As a result, it has never been included in programmes such as HIPC for highly indebted countries.

The recent advances in the international strategy to relieve the debt burden of highly indebted poor countries (HIPC) will have some effect, but more may need to be done, not only for the low income countries of Africa but also for its highly indebted middle income countries.

To reverse this trend, the international community must address debt sustainability in highly indebted and low income countries, particularly in Africa.

Noting with concern that some highly indebted, middle income developing countries are facing serious difficulties in meeting their external debt servicing obligations,

Fourthly, debt relief has been limited to those highly indebted poor countries which have satisfied International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditions for disbursements.

More specifically, in highly indebted countries and least developed countries (LDCs), the conviction that reform is needed does not always translate into concrete action.

She welcomed recent G8 commitments to write off the multilateral debt of highly indebted poor countries (HIPCs) and to double their ODA by 2010.

But there are also many middle income countries that are highly indebted and have large populations that survive on less than 1 a day.

The Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative proposed by the World Bank and IMF and agreed to by member Governments, is to be encouraged.

17. Recognizes the difficulties of highly indebted middle income developing countries and other highly indebted middle income countries in meeting their external debt and debt servicing obligations, and notes the serious situation in some of them in the context, inter alia, of significant liquidity constraints, which may require debt treatment, including, as appropriate, debt reduction measures

Noting with concern that some other highly indebted low and middle income developing countries are facing serious difficulties in meeting their external debt servicing obligations,

Invites the Bretton Woods institutions to consider the issue of debt sustainability and the implications of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative for Haiti

We welcome the decision of G 8 nations to write off the debt of 18 highly indebted poor countries in the amount of 40 billion.

Spain has also adopted measures on foreign debt that will enable our country to participate actively in multilateral debt cancellation initiatives for highly indebted poor countries.

Noting with concern that some highly indebted middle income developing countries are facing serious difficulties in meeting their external debt servicing obligations owing, inter alia, to liquidity constraints,

However, there are elements on which to build, such as progress in macroeconomic stability and economic governance and the possibility of a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative.

The Asian and other financial crises brought to the fore some new dimensions to the debt problems of developing countries, particularly for the middle income, highly indebted countries.

The recent decision of the Group of 8 (G 8) to cancel the external debt of 18 highly indebted poor countries, including 13 least developed countries, is a welcome move.

While some of our countries have benefited from debt relief strategies including the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative that has not as yet resulted in debt sustainability in the region.

Furthermore, the higher oil prices were affecting the productivity and competitiveness of many oil importing countries and lowering the GDP of the highly indebted poor countries, especially in sub Saharan Africa.

We welcome the increase in debt relief, including debt cancellation, for many of the most highly indebted poor countries, as well as the renewed focus on Africa and on HIV AIDS.

We equally laud and welcome the initiative of the G 8 to cancel 100 per cent of the debt of the highly indebted poor countries, 14 of which are in Africa.

In that regard, her delegation welcomed the joint initiative of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the highly indebted and poor countries, which should be implemented immediately.

The UNDP Human Development Report 1997 notes that the debt of the 41 highly indebted poor countries totalled 215 billion, up from 183 billion in 1990 and 55 billion in 1980.

Spain is also engaging with highly indebted middle income countries in projects to swap debt for public investment in key areas for sustainable human development, such as education, the environment and infrastructure.

14. Calls upon bilateral and multilateral donors to contribute to the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Trust Fund in order to help the African Development Bank meet its share of Initiative related costs

Highly talented. Highly.

Equally commendable is the decision taken by Group of Eight countries leading to a doubling of development aid to Africa and debt relief for highly indebted poor countries, including my own country, Mozambique.

However, I am deeply concerned that we sometimes seem to move backward on our commitments, as appears to be happening with the full cancellation of the debt of the highly indebted poor countries.

Three Paths for Indebted Democracies

We are indebted to her.

Finally, I wish to reiterate that the Caribbean Community welcomes the recent announcement by the Group of Eight aimed at reducing the debt of some of the most highly indebted countries in the world.

More vigorous efforts were therefore needed to write off debts, not only for the highly indebted poor countries (HIPC) but also for other countries which faced increasing difficulties in meeting their debt service commitments.

The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) has contributed to the alleviation of the external debt burden for 14 African countries within the framework of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Debt Initiative.

33. In line with the HIPC initiative, the African Development Bank has established a 150 million supplementary financing mechanism to assist highly indebted, low income African countries to service their loans from the Bank.

We are gratified at the decision taken in Gleneagles, Scotland, by the Group of Eight (G 8) to completely cancel the debt of 18 highly indebted poor countries, 13 of which are least developed countries.

28. This section must be recast and updated to reflect the needs of highly indebted poor countries (or HIPC), using language from the development committee communiqué at the World Bank IMF meetings of late September.

However, we are indebted to it.

E. The heavily indebted poor countries

On this auspicious occasion, my delegation expresses sincere appreciation for all initiatives recently taken to address the needs of developing countries, especially the debt cancellation extended by the G 8 countries to highly indebted poor countries.