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PARIS CLUB CREDITORS REDUCE TANZANIA'S DEBT - BUT UK GOVERNMENT IS DETERMINED TO PILE ON MORE 17th January 2001 Today, Tanzania will come before the Paris Club for a rubber stamping of the debt relief deal agreed with the IMF and World Bank at Completion Point in November of last year. The Paris Club is today expected to agree to a stock of debt operation on Cologne Terms, in order to bring about the 54% reduction in Tanzania's debt agreed at Completion Point. While many of Tanzania's bilateral creditors have been providing so-called 'flow relief' - where debt service payments are reduced - since Decision Point in March 2000, it is only now that Tanzania will see any reduction in her stock of debt from most of her creditors. For some bilateral creditors, the debt relief provided to Tanzania will go beyond the paltry levels agreed under the enhanced HIPC initiative. Jubilee Plus welcomes the efforts of those, including the UK, who have agreed to write off the entire stock of bilateral debt. But in this context, it is even more shocking that the UK government has decided to grant an export license for the sale of a BAE military air control system to Tanzania. In a defiance of all logic, the UK government is reducing Tanzania's debt with one hand, while piling on more debt with the other. The UK's stated concern with poverty reduction is being subsumed under a narrow defence of her own economic interests, on the backs of the poor of Tanzania. |
