20 January 2004 12:11
Putin pledges to continue with third-world debt relief
Novo-Ogarevo, 20 January: Russia will intensify its aid to poorer countries, President Vladimir Putin said today at a
meeting with World Bank President James Wolfensohn.
"We already play a significant role in many of the Bank's initiatives. Russia's input to debt-relief
programmes for the poorest countries is the greatest in terms of ratio to GDP, and in absolute terms its debt write-offs
are third after Japan and Germany," Putin said.
Russia has written off over 30bn dollars of third-world debt in the past five years, he pointed out. "Russia
intends to continue honouring its commitments to lighten the burden of debt," he said.
[ITAR-TASS news agency] |
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