RP’s debt relief proposal ‘catching fire’

World leaders have endorsed Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr.’s proposal to convert half of the debt owed by 100 heavily indebted middle-income nations into equity in development programs to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

Among the latest to endorse De Venecia’s debt-for-equity in MDG projects are Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Ukraine Verkhovna (Parliament) chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).

US Sen. Daniel Inouye told De Venecia following a recent meeting in Washington that he would place in the US Congressional record the full text of the Speaker’s debt-for-equity program.

The latest support for De Venecia’s initiative followed UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s endorsement in which he praised De Venecia for using debt conversions in dealing with external debt to "finance sustainable development programs."

Annan asked De Venecia to bring his proposal "to the attention of world leaders" because it is innovative and could be one of the key programs to achieving the UN MDGs.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and various Asian and European heads of parliament also gave their endorsement following De Venecia’s official presentation of the action program at UN Summit of Speakers of Parliaments in New York last month and before senior officials of the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC.

President Arroyo also strongly endorsed De Venecia’s debt-for-equity program to world leaders during her address at the UN Security Council and the Inter-faith Summit and the UN-ASEAN Summit last month.

"The unequivocal show of support indicates the desire of leaders of the world to solve the chronic problem of world debt and the need for heavily indebted countries to fund their development programs to reduce poverty," De Venecia said.

In endorsing the debt-for-equity program, Lytvyn said debtor and donor countries should give priority to the action program, which he called "bold, outstanding and has strong rationale."

"It is quite difficult for any country to withstand the challenges of today alone, without assistance of the other countries," Lytvyn said.

Hun Sen said heavily indebted countries should support the proposal to achieve debt relief and debt reduction.

De Venecia’s program proposes to convert 50 percent of the debt-service receipts of lending institutions and multinational commercial banks into "equity development and anti-poverty projects that poor countries are undertaking to meet their national MDG goals over 2005-15."

The MDG projects that debtor countries like the Philippines can offer as objects of debt-for-equity investments are reforestation, mass housing, energy, eco-tourism, irrigation and post-harvest facilities, land reclamation and wealth-creating projects and education and culture, De Venecia said.

Since unveiling the program in June, De Venecia has won endorsements from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, sparking the interest of the Paris Club, the British Treasury, OPEC Fund, Latin American Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Paris Club president Jean-Pierre Jouyet has created a technical committee to study the program’s mechanics, immediately following De Venecia’s 30-minute presentation of his proposal.

"If the global community is to realize its MDG vision of halving the world’s most abject poor in ten years’ time, it will need the concerted action of the richest countries," De Venecia said.

Meanwhile, De Venecia said in his home province of Pangasinan he will work out a process of reconciliation to settle confrontation between Malacañang and the Senate.

Speaking to reporters yesterday during the inauguration of the first government-owned dialysis center in Dagupan City, De Venecia said the Senate has been constantly provoking Malacañang.

"The people are fed up by with so many investigations every week which are even endangering our diplomatic relations with other countries," he said. — With Eva Visperas