Nation qualifies for debt relief

The Republic of Congo has qualified for debt relief after reaching "decision point" under the World Bank's Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, the Bank announced. "The objective of debt relief is to free up resources to improve the lot of the poor," Pedro Alba, the World Bank Country Director for the Republic of Congo (ROC), the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda, said on Thursday. "Between the point of decision and the point of completion, each creditor can reduce the debt servicing; it is an individual decision," Alba said. "The point of completion has no fixed time. That depends on the performance of each country in the implementation of measurements which were decided." The Bank said the government would begin "receiving interim debt relief from certain creditors, but must tackle concerns about governance and financial transparency in order to qualify for irrevocable debt relief at the completion point". The Bank said the government had pledged to boost internal controls and accounting system of the state-owned oil company, SNPC, up to internationally recognised standards; prevent conflict of interests in the marketing of oil; have officials of SNPC to declare publicly and divest any interest in companies doing business with SNPC; and implementing an anti-corruption action plan with international support, monitored by the Bank's International Development Agency and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Bank said because assurances of finance from external creditors were not yet in place, the IMF would not provide interim money just yet. According to Anglo-American NGO, Global Witness, ROC produces 25,000 barrels of oil per day, enough to care adequately for the nation's three million people. ROC is the fourth largest producer of petroleum crude south of the Sahara after Nigeria, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. However, the UN Development Programme says 70 percent of the citizens of the ROC live on less than one US dollar a day. "You have a lot of oil and poverty," Alba said. "The released resources must help the population, in particular the poorest."