Transparency is key to debt deal - UK's Brown
12 Jun 2005 14:06:48 GMT
Source: Reuters
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By Katherine Baldwin
LONDON, June 12 (Reuters) - Plans to cancel the debts of the world's poorest countries must go hand-in-hand with a commitment by the beneficiaries to good governance and transparency, British finance minister Gordon Brown said on Sunday.
Brown, one of the architects of the debt write-off announced on Saturday by the Group of Eight rich nations, said ensuring money went to those who needed it was at the centre of the deal.
Anti-poverty campaigners welcomed the move to write off more than $40 billion in debts to multinational lenders of 18 mainly African countries, but many demanded strict controls to ensure corrupt leaders did not misuse funds.
"It is the biggest debt settlement that can be reached and I believe that that is the starting point," Brown said in an interview on ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme.
"But it's only going to succeed if it's matched by aid, by trade justice, by transparency, by tackling corruption, by dealing with the governance issues," he added.
Brown rejected suggestions the G8 was pouring good money after bad in Africa after decades of aid programmes, some of which have swelled the bank accounts of corrupt leaders.
"At the centre of our proposals is greater transparency," he said. "They realise in African countries that if they're not transparent about what they do they will get less help and they realise also that they're accountable in the end to their own people and not just to donor agencies around the world."
Prime Minister Tony Blair has put African poverty relief and climate change at the centre of Britain's G8 presidency and he is under pressure to deliver.
He began on Sunday a trip to Russia, France, Germany and Luxembourg to prepare for next months's G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, and to discuss a crisis in the European Union.
AMERICA ON BOARD?
Brown said the full details of the debt deal would be unveiled at Gleneagles, when he expected campaigners to be satisfied with the scale of the agreement.
"I believe people will see this as comprehensive. Now that doesn't mean to say that more does not need to be done."
Finance Ministers, under the deal, had agreed to give "replacement money" to the World Bank and the African Development Bank to compensate for the write-off, Brown said.
The International Monetary Fund had internal resources to finance much of the debt cancellation but ministers had agreed to give extra money to the IMF if necessary, he added.
"I believe that the Americans want to do this also and what's really happening is that we are trying to get a comprehensive settlement," he said.
Asked about Washington's refusal to sign up to his proposal on "front loading" aid under an International Finance Facility (IFF), Brown said: "We've still some weeks to go to Gleneagles".
The IFF would double aid to the poorest countries to $100 billion by issuing bonds using rich nations' development budgets as collateral.
On climate change, Brown said he expected an agreement at the G8 summit, but he suggested a deal would address science and technology rather than targets for carbon emissions.
"I think Tony Blair expects to be able to say that there will be progress on the front that I'm talking about and that is on the science and the technology, the cooperation between countries, the engagement of the developing countries," he said. |
