Heavily indebted poor countries
As Heavily indebted developing countries or Highly Indebted Poor Countries (English Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, abbreviated HIPC) is a group of developing countries with high debt - mainly in Africa, next to Asia and Latin America - denotes that of the HIPC Initiative, the G8 countries should profit debt relief.
For the indebtedness of developing countries in general, see national debt of developing countries.
History
At the Cologne Summit in 1999, the G8 countries have submitted on the initiative of the German Federal Government and under the pressure of numerous non-governmental organizations (such as Erlassjahr.de ) a proposal for the expansion and acceleration of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, which was adopted by the World Bank and IMF. For relief under this HIPC Initiative, countries can qualify and receive at the World Bank loans exclusively to the best conditions and which have a debt that is more than 150 % (previously 200%) of export revenues, or more than 250 % of government revenues accounts.
The countries that qualify for fulfillment of certain conditions for all debts that exceed the above limits adopted. For all these countries together, the estimated total debt is U.S. $ up to 70 billion.
The aim of this debt is to combat poverty in the countries concerned.
List of countries involved
The initiative includes 41 countries (2008):
- Countries, the first stage of the requirement to meet (so-called pre- decision point ):
- Countries that show good governance, have reached the second stage (so-called decision point ):
- Countries that also transpose good governance, have reached the third stage (so-called completion point):
Criticism
Proponents of the HIPC Initiative expect that the countries concerned can now no longer focus mainly on the repayment of debt, but on development policies such as infrastructure, social and educational tasks.
Critics of the initiative will, however, been argued that the countries concerned would lend new money again, especially encouraged by the debt relief and due to fiscal needs. Thus, the debt problem would occur in a few years back in a similar form. Also, it is criticized that this constituted a reward for those countries that have not managed to boost with the help of international funds, the economy, so as to repay the debt. Accordingly, those countries would be punished who have their loans successfully repaid and at least a portion of their debt, as they are not qualified for the HIPC Initiative.