SECRETARY-GENERAL WELCOMES EFFORTS BEING MADE BY GROUP OF SEVEN DONOR COUNTRIES TO ALLEVIATE DEBT BURDEN OF POOREST COUNTRIES
Press Release
SG/SM/6964
SECRETARY-GENERAL WELCOMES EFFORTS BEING MADE BY GROUP OF SEVEN DONOR COUNTRIES TO ALLEVIATE DEBT BURDEN OF POOREST COUNTRIES
19990422 The following statement was issued today by the Office of the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:The Secretary-General welcomes the efforts being made by the members of the Group of Seven donor countries to alleviate the debt burden of the poorest countries by converting to grants or cancelling a large part of their official bilateral debt. The announcement that Japan plans to cancel $7.82 billion of the debt of the poorest countries is in line with similar proposals made by the other Group of Seven countries.
The Secretary-General is gratified by these expressions of international cooperation, and he hopes that the donor countries will support additional measures to enable the multilateral financial institutions to alleviate the burden of the multilateral debt of the poorest countries and provide additional resources to reverse the declining official development assistance (ODA) trend.
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