Forgive the debt

Phnom Penh Post, Thursday, 23 September 2010 19:21 Brooke Lewis

Photo by: AFP

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong addresses the Millennium Development Goals Summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday.

FOREIGN Minister Hor Namhong has called on developed countries to cancel the debts of poorer nations to improve the prospects of achieving a Millennium Development Goal to reduce worldwide poverty by half by 2015.
Speaking on the second day of an international MDG summit at United Nations headquarters in New York, Hor Namhong said that the “burden of debt reimbursement” presented a “major hurdle” for less developed countries seeking to meet MDG targets. He said their  ability to fund development projects, “especially in the social sectors”, was severely curtailed by such debts.
“More serious consideration should ... be given to relieving poor countries of their debt burden, thus increasing their financial resources to fund essential development projects to meet the MDGs,” he said.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is scheduled to meet US President Barack Obama at the ASEAN-US Leaders’ Meeting in New York, said last week that he intended to ask Obama to cancel an estimated US$317 million in debts accrued by the Lon Nol regime in the 1970s. ...read the full story in tomorrow’s Phnom Penh Post or see the updated story online from 3PM UTC/GMT +7 hours.