pounds 6.5m debt aid for Uganda

Clare Short, Secretary of State for International Development, said Britain would provide over pounds 6.5m to help reduce the debt owed by Uganda to the African Development Bank. The move forms part of the debt reduction initiative agreed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank last year. Uganda will be the first country to benefit under the initiative, starting in April 1998. The new UK contribution, together with extra money from Norway and the Netherlands, will cover the debt relief due to Uganda from the African Development Bank, which could not finance its share from its own resources.

In a separate speech yesterday, Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, urged that new impetus be given to debt relief for the poorest countries. Speaking in Mauritius, he said every heavily indebted poor country should be launched on the process of debt relief by the year 2000.