30216: (news) Chamberlain: IDB gives Haiti debt relief (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   GUATEMALA CITY, March 16 (AP) -- The Inter-American Development Bank
said Friday it would forgive $4.4 billion in debt owed by five of the
poorest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
   The bank excused the foreign debts of Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Haiti and Guyana.
   "This is a historic opportunity that will give these countries a fresh
start," bank president Luis Alberto Moreno said in an announcement before
the bank's annual meeting here, which starts Monday.
   Honduras shed $1.4 billion in debt, Bolivia $1 billion, Nicaragua $984
million and Guyana $467 million. The initiative is retroactive to Jan. 1,
2007.
   Haiti, which is part of the International Monetary Fund's Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, will be able to get rid of $20 million
of its debt by 2009, and after that it can shed the entire $525 million.
   Moreno said the bank would also provide funding to Ecuador, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Paraguay and Suriname to let those countries free resources for
education, health care and other services.
   Friday's initiative is part of the bank's goal to cut poverty in half in
Latin America by 2015.