G-8 Debt Decision Welcomed.

United Nations officials on 21 June welcomed the previous weekend's announcement at the G-8 Summit in Cologne, Germany, that up to $70 billion in external debt of developing countries would be cancelled. In recent months, the United Nations has urged the seven leading industrialized countries and the Russian Federation to provide relief for the world's heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs), arguing that the crushing debt burden and world financial crisis have returned millions of people to poverty and reversed decades of economic development. A spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan (whose letter in this regard appears on pages 42-43) said that the UN leader welcomed the "very significant commitments" made at the Group of 8 meeting. "He expresses the hope that financial resources will be made available shortly to implement the proposed measures", his spokesman said.

In Nairobi, the head of the United Nations Environment Programme, Klaus Toepfer, called debt relief a necessary pre-condition for sustainable development and an important step towards increasing resources for education, health and the environment. "In order to achieve the goals of poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability, it is also important that the international community increase its level of overseas development assistance to deserving countries , he said.

The G-8's debt relief plan would also free up needed funds for health concerns, said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of the World Health Organization. "Whereas 90 per cent of the disease burden is in developing countries, these countries have access to only 10 per cent of the resources going to health", she said.