Thursday, January 6, 2005

GORDON BROWN'S SPEECH Gordon Brown (Chancellor of the Exchequer): "So 2005 is a year of challenge. A testing time as to whether the world can not only provide the emergency aid that is needed now to help the millions affected by the Asian crisis but whether we can wake up to the tragedy of global poverty and all its implications. Whether we can finally live up to the scale of the promises made. Whether we can come together as never before to fashion a new relationship between rich and poor countries and peoples. First on debt relief, let us in 2005 make a historic offer that finally removes the burden of decades old debts that today prevent the poorest countries ever escaping poverty and leading their own economic development. We do not wipe out the debt of the poorest countries simply because these debts are not easily paid. We do so because people weighed down by the burden of debts imposed by the last generation on this cannot even begin to build for the next generation. That is why the UK Government has put forward its proposal for stable, predictable, long-term funds frontloaded to tackle today's problems of poverty, disease and illiteracy through an International Finance Facility. And so the practical benefits of the IFF are: - we provide the support poor countries need straightaway - frontloading investment in infrastructure, education and health systems, and economic development so they can benefit from access to our markets; - we provide grants immediately to help ensure a sustainable exit from debt so poor countries do not need to choose between emergency relief and long term investment; - we make primary schooling for all not just a distant dream but a practical reality - meeting these needs and rights now and not deferring them to an uncertain future; and - we advance towards our global goals of cutting infant mortality and maternal mortality on schedule, eliminating malaria and TB and treating millions more people who are suffering from HIV/AIDS." Read the complete speech. BBC comment. Finally a man with a vision! 11:21:43 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2005 Hetty Litjens.