Chancellor: oil-rich nations to give more African aid
The Blair administration is to press oil-rich Arab nations to contribute more to the debt relief campaign for Africa, Chancellor Gordon Brown has said.
With Britain holding the presidency of the G8 this year, Mr Brown believes 2005 will be “the make or break year” in the fight against world poverty.
As such, he has written to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) asking them for more money to help the world’s poor.
Speaking in the Observer newspaper, Mr Brown defended his “international finance facility” scheme, part of his new “Marshall plan” aimed at raising $100 billion, but acknowledged America was hesitant to sign up to it. Germany, Japan and Canada are also lukewarm on the sustainability of the IFF.
“It is critical that all wealthy countries, including the richer, oil producing states join in,” Mr Brown wrote.
The newspaper said Mr Brown had started discussions with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates over donating more in overseas aid.
The scheme aims to double aid for poor countries by borrowing on capital markets to release future aid funding in the here and now.
It is flanked by plans to sell off the International Monetary Fund’s gold reserves and an agreement to slash 100 per cent of the debt owed to the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank by African nations.
Mr Brown will tell GMTV today: “I would like to see the oil producing states, the countries that have done well out of the rise in the oil price, being willing to make a contribution also to the new development agenda, and particularly to debt relief and to international aid.”
Ahead of the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, Tony Blair is to fly to Washington on Monday to win over a sceptical George Bush to the cause.
