African Finance Ministers Call for More Debt Relief

Nairobi — On the debt issue, the ministers lamented that multilateral initiatives have not led to 100 per cent cancellation of debt for most African countries

African finance ministers gathered at a two-day meeting in Tunis have called on the international community to grant debt relief to non-highly indebted poor countries (HIPC) who fall into special difficulties.

The issues that dominated the agenda were integrated infrastructure development, the effect of rising oil prices in Africa and the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round trade talks in Hong Kong in December.

On the debt issue, the ministers lamented that multilateral debt initiatives have not led to 100 per cent cancellation of debt for most African countries. These concerns will be tabled at a meeting in Washington next month of deputies of the African Development Fund and the International Development Association.

The Tunis meeting decried the fact that infrastructure in Africa had remained fragmented and welcomed the creation of the African Infrastructure Consortium to be hosted by the African Development Bank.

It also stressed the need for African countries to include regional infrastructure development in their national plans and prioritise it in their budgets. On oil, the ministers expressed concern about the adverse impact of the oil price increases on net oil importing African countries and proposed that a special oil fund be considered to help them absorb the shock and support the continent's development efforts. In a final communiqu , they advised African countries, "To develop alternative sources of energy, including hydropower and other renewable sources as well as increase energy efficiency."

The meeting acknowledged the importance of a more open global trading system for enhancing growth and employment prospects in Africa, and called for speedy dismantling of trade barriers and elimination of trade distorting subsidies, especially in agriculture, to broaden trade opportunities for African countries.

Impediments to the expan-sion of regional and South-South trade should be removed, the Ministers said, stressing the importance of enhanced dialogue between ministers for finance and Ministers for Trade to ensure that trade issues are mainstreamed in Poverty Reduction Strategy Plans and national development programmes.

Noting that African countries needed to be supported in building their capacity to negotiate, the meeting called on the African Union, the Economic Commission for Africa and the ADB to provide co-ordinated support to the countries in this regard.

The ministers welcomed the ongoing institutional reforms in the ADB aimed at increasing its operational effectiveness. They recognised the importance of strengthening co-ordination between the bank, the African Union, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) secretariat and African regional economic organisations.

The meeting called on the bank and development partners to address the special problems faced by post-conflict countries as well as by landlocked countries.

The ministers called on the ADB to convene a similar gathering in the next six months during which concrete measures to address the issues raised would be tabled.

Speaking at a post-meeting press conference, the chair of the event and Burkina Faso's Economy and Development Minister, Seydou Bouda and ADB president Donald Kaberuka, were happy to note that all regions of the continent and all its regional economic organisations were in Tunis for the meeting.

The ad-hoc ministerial conference was hosted by the ADB in close collaboration with Economic Commission for Africa.

AllAfrica publishes around 400 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.