World

G7 Nations pledge to cancel Haiti's bilateral debt

by Rhonda J Mangus | February 7, 2010 at 09:43 am

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At a summit in Iqaluit, northern Canada, Canada's Minister of Finance, James M. Flaherty, announced a pledge by the G7 Nations to cancel Haiti's bilateral debt. The announcement follows Haiti's devastating 7.0 earthquake on January 12, 2010.

Some $1.2bn (£800m) of Haiti's debts to countries and international lending bodies has already been cancelled.

"We are committed in the G7 to the forgiveness of debt, in fact all bilateral debt has been forgiven by G7 countries vis-a-vis Haiti," Mr Flaherty said at the end of the two day gathering of finance ministers.

"The debt to multilateral institutions should be forgiven, and we will work with these institutions and other partners to make this happen as soon as possible," he added.

At least one million people are in need of aid in Haiti after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake which struck in mid-January, killing more than 200,000 people.

The G7 group - which includes Canada, the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - has been under pressure to help Haiti recover since the 12 January quake by cancelling the money owed by Haiti.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown hailed the pledge, saying: "It must be right that a nation buried in rubble must not also be buried in debt".

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158

at 10:27 on February 7th, 2010

This is a good plan. Also they lose little or nothing because Haiti could not repay then form years, if ever.

Uwe Paschen

at 10:33 on February 7th, 2010

France cancelled Haiti's dept in the first week after the Earthquake. I think it is the most sensitive thing to do. Better yet would be to give Haiti a grand for rebuilding rather then another loan.

tikun

at 10:36 on February 7th, 2010

The least France can do is forget debt since they were instrumental in bringing slaves to Haiti in the first place and created total havoc and distrust.