|
|
Liberia: Grease Drips Down Country's Elbow
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Analyst (Monrovia)
23 April 2008
Posted to the web 23 April 2008
The world community seems perched to revive Liberia, Africa's oldest Negro republic well in its 161st year of independence, after years of bitter politico-ethnic and sometimes baseless infighting.
Or so it seems. But the nation is fast picking up the aura of a hunter who, though praised for bagging many games, carries nothing home to his family for meals. And that's worrying observers of Liberia's recovery program.
The Analyst compiled and presents yet up-to-date dispatches about donor and creditor goodwill for Liberia. Many say the dispatches come in the midst of rising hardship in the country and the resulting downward socio-economic mobility from anxiety to fear amongst Liberians.
The U.S. and the Paris Club have agreed to forgive a significant amount of their debt claims to Liberia just as Vietnam backs improved security in Liberia.
The Paris Club is an informal group of financial officials from 19 of the world's richest countries, which provides financial services such as debt restructuring, debt relief, and debt cancellation to indebted countries and their creditors.
The permanent member-nations of the club are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
A State Department statement issued last Friday by government spokesman Sean McCormack, said together the creditor club and the United States government reached an accord with the Liberian government to forgive approximately $254 million in debt immediately.
"The United States intends to go beyond the terms of the Paris Club debt relief deal and cancel 100 percent of its claims on Liberia, which total approximately $430 million," the statement further disclosed.
The statement quoted the Paris Club creditors as expressing their commitment to implement debt relief that will total more than $1.3 billion if Liberia continues to perform well under its three-year IMF program. Part of the IMF program is the initiation of poverty reduction and consistent debt servicing, according to recent reports.
"U.S. strongly supports the efforts of the Liberian people and the government of President Johnson-Sirleaf to overcome years of conflict and instability and to implement reforms that are putting Liberia back on the path of growth and development," the statement emphasized.
It then noted that the United States already has contributed over $211 million for the clearance of Liberia's arrears to the IMF, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank.
Analysts say Liberia's total foreign debt of $3.7 billion, which is now tapered by recent international efforts, was mostly incurred by the country's previous undemocratic regimes dating back to the Tolbert regime.
The Paris Club cancelled $254 million of Liberia's debt and rescheduled a further $789 million, according to a statement from the group, Thursday night. "Under the deal, Liberia will not have to repay any of its debt before December 31, 2010, given its 'very limited capacity of payment,'" the statement said.
The Liberian government in turn has committed itself to investing its new resources in poverty reduction programmes and to reaching a similar deal with the London Club of creditors. Liberia was indebted to the Paris Club by 1.5 billion dollars.
According to an Afro News last Friday dispatch, the agreement between the Liberian government and the Paris Club was concluded under the "Cologne Terms" designed by the Paris Club for the implementation of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries [HIPC].
Its intention, the dispatch said, was to endorse the restructuring of Liberia's external public debt. Whatever that means was not noted. Concluded under "Cologne terms" designed by the Paris Club for the implementation of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries [HIPC], the agreement endorsed the restructuring of Liberia's external public debt.
This agreement has been concluded under the so called "Cologne terms" designed by the Paris Club for the implementation of the HIPC initiative interim debt relief. As of 1st January 2008, Liberia owed the Paris Club creditors more than US $1.5 billion in nominal terms, of which more than 97% consisted of arrears and late interest.
The rest of Liberia's rescheduled US$789 million will be addressed for debt relief when Liberia reaches Completion Point.
|
"On an exceptional basis, considering Liberia's very limited capacity of payment, and provided that this country continues to implement satisfactorily an IMF supported program, no payments are expected from Liberia between 1st March 2008 and 31 December 2010, by which time Liberia is expected to have reached its HIPC Completion Point and received the remainder of the debt reduction envisioned under the HIPC initiative," Paris Club creditors agreed.
Please stop using the terms that put black people down." Negro" is a negative term not only in America but in the world. Liberia is not a Negro republic. Liberia is the oldest African country. Liberians are not Negro, we are BLACK and we are AFRICANs Thanks
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
