PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo says that during the Cochabamba Summit in Bolivia over the weekend, he was able to secure an endorsement of the South American Community of Nations (SACN) of a debt relief resolution.
He told the Government Information Agency (GINA) the resolution petitions the Committee of Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for 100 per cent relief of Guyana’s stock of debt, with December 2004 as the cut off point, and to take effect from January 1, 2007.
With Brazil and the United States holding close to 60 per cent of the shareholding of the IDB, the summit provided an excellent opportunity for Guyana to press its case, GINA said.
Governors of the IDB meeting in Washington last month reached an agreement on the framework for a debt relief package for the most indebted poor countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. This is expected to result in debts being cancelled to Guyana, Bolivia, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua.
The principles of the framework stipulate that 100 per cent debt relief be granted, with effect from January 1, 2007, to the five countries eligible for the concessional Fund for Special Operations (FSO) window of the IDB.
These countries, however, will continue to have access to concessional loans and technical cooperation grants from the IDB.
The specific details of the package, such as the cut-off date and the definition of the eligible debt will be decided at a subsequent meeting of the Committee of Governors to be held in time for the agreements reached to be presented to the annual meeting of the IDB Board of Governors in Guatemala, in March 2007.
GINA said President Jagdeo was optimistic that the resolution would be passed at the next IDB Board of Governors meeting.
“We think that that will succeed…. for this resolution to pass you have to have 15 countries voting in favour of it and more than 15 countries at the meeting expressed support for the resolution. You have to have more than 50 per cent of the shareholding of the bank, and between Brazil and the U.S.A. alone, they have close to 60 per cent of the shareholding of the FSO.”
GINA said he noted that both the U.S. and Brazil supported the framework outlined in the resolution.
The President had said that he was pleased that the Americans and Brazilians were strongly in favour of the resolution as well as most of the countries at the Washington meeting.
Guyana’s debt to the IDB amounts to about US$ 400M.
GINA said that at the summit, President Jagdeo concurred with his counterparts to create a high-level commission in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to study the idea of establishing a continent-wide community, modelled after the European Union (EU).
The heads, it said, also unanimously declared that South America should be a region of peace.
President Jagdeo explained that they mulled over a new model of unity and solidarity with a pluralist identity, along with diversity and differences, appreciating different political and ideological ideas compatible with democratic plurality of South American countries.
The President, GINA said, in several discussions with his colleagues, outlined his mission and programmes for Guyana’s development, and Guyana’s place in continental solidarity. Guyana, strategically located between Venezuela and Brazil, is a prime target for physical infrastructural development in the South American integration process, the President noted.