Sharm el-Sheikh conference to write off 30 billion dollars of Iraq debts
Sharm el-Sheikh (AsiaNews/Agencies) – United Nations Chief Ban Ki-moon announced that countries attending the conference in the Egyptian sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh have agreed to write off 30 billion dollars of Iraq debts. At the end of the meeting a five-year International Compact for Iraq (ICI) was agreed to; it aims, in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s words, at rebuilding “a united, democratic and federal Iraq” that would share its wealth amongst the population.
Iraqi Finance Minister Bayan Jabr said that his country has a debt of 40 to 50 billion dollars. China, Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea, Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus have agreed to write off 80 per cent of Iraq’s debt.
Secretary General Ban expects further financial commitments from the United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, China, Denmark, Korea and other key players at the Sharm el-Sheikh conference.
In November 2004, the Paris Club, which includes 19 industrialised countries, had decided to write off 80 per cent of Iraq’s debt in three stages. By next year, the debt should drop from US$ 38.9 to 7.8 billion.
The meeting at Sharm el-Sheikh is considered the most important initiative in favour of Iraq since the war began in March 2003.
It has also given Washington an opportunity to shift its policy in the region, not only in terms of a more open approach to its historic enemies of Iran and Syria, but also insofar as Washington now wants a broad and decisive commitment by the international community in the Iraqi crisis, as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put it herself.
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