But this is dependent on the donor community reverting to its original criteria for poor economies such as Guyana reaching their HIPC completion point far earlier than now appears likely.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday on his attendance at the just-concluded Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference in Abuja, Nigeria, President Jagdeo emphasized that the debt relief is of critical and crucial importance to the economic development of Guyana.

He lamented the steady shifting of the "goal posts" by the international financial institutions in determining the extent to which countries benefit under HPIC, saying that was not the intention when the G-7 Group of Industrialized Countries announced the Initiative.

The President stressed that debt relief under the Initiative should be faster, wider and deep and expressed the hope that next week's World Bank meeting would result in Guyana and similar would-be beneficiaries being allowed to reach their HIPC completion point.

He also expressed the hope that the government would receive support from the political opposition in garnering relief under HPIC, pointing out that it would benefit all sections of the Guyanese people. He said that in the context of the origin of the national debt, the People's National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) has a moral obligation to support the efforts of government to successfully negotiate debt relief.

HIPC aims to bring a beneficiary country's debt burden down to sustainable levels, subject to satisfactory policy performance. It aims also to ensure that adjustment and reform efforts are not put at risk by continued high debt and service burdens.