Part of Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 9:30 am on 9 March 2010.
Michael Connarty
Chair, European Scrutiny Committee, Chair, European Scrutiny Committee
9:30,
9 March 2010
I agree with my right hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Gorton, in that I am sure the Amendment is well intentioned, but in fact the subsection refers to a “potentially eligible Initiative country”, not debt. I have just read a book about someone who followed in the footsteps of David Livingstone across the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At one time it had 11,000 kilometres of motorway, and now it has 1,100 kilometres of passable roads. So a country that at the moment seems quite secure after the ravages of war could end up, like the DRC, unable to pay back the debts it currently has. Given that the provision focuses on the “country”, to say that nothing could be considered for the country in question in future would be entirely wrong.
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