TUC calls for public debate on HIPC

THE Trades Union Congress (TUC), has urged the government to open up for public discussion the issue of whether or not Ghana should join the Heavily- Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). This, it said, is necessary to allow for some consensus to be built before a decision is taken, adding that the government should, by this, demonstrate its commitment to transparency and its “all-inclusive policy right from the beginning”. Speaking at the news conference in Accra yesterday, Mr Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, Secretary-General of the TUC, said the HIPC initiative as announced by Horst Kohler, IMF boss and James Wolfensohn, World Bank President, last year, was to, among others, help poor countries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, The Gambia, and Mali to reduce their debts to sustainable levels as a way to renew their prospects for growth and free up resources for vital social needs. He said on the surface, the HIPC looks very attractive, especially in the case of Ghana where her debt burden has reached alarming proportions. The TUC boss said some powerful countries, notably Britain, are almost forcing Ghana to join HIPC and yet another, like Japan, is obviously not in favour of HIPC. Mr Adu-Amankwah said Japan is owed over $10 billion by 41 HIPC countries and over $31 billion by the wider 52 Jubilee 2000 countries. He said the largest debtors of the 52 Jubilee 2000 countries include Phillipines, $11.6 billion and Bangladesh, $3.4 billion. Ghana owes Japan over $900 million which makes her the fourth largest borrower from Japan after Myanmar, Kenya and Vietnam and that none of the countries that are heavily debted to Japan has opted to join HIPC. Mr Adu-Amankwah said he has not yet seen any development or progress in the 18 African countries that are benefiting from the HIPC and cannot fathom why Ghana should also join the HIPC since Ghanaians can contribute in their own little ways to build the nation. He, therefore, encouraged the government not to allow itself to be coerced into accepting the HIPC by what he described as some powerful countries and institutions which want to ensure that Ghana completes the remaining reform agenda under the Enhanced Structural Adjusment Facility (ESAF) by any means. Mr Adu-Amankwah said Ghana has a long list of IMF Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility conditions to comply with and some of these include the divestiture of National Investment Bank, Ghana Commercial Bank, Agricultural Development Bank and Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) as well as the public service restructuring programme. To this end, he said accepting HIPC means Ghana has to complete this long list of programmes, most of which are well behind schedule, probably due to their implications, adding “there is no free lunch anywhere”. Mr Adu-Amankwah advised the government not to enter into such arrangement when the full information about what the political, social and economic cost will be is not available. He urged a consideration of the full implications of what it means to be called “Insolvent” or “heavily-indebted and “poor” to international investors, who are intersted in Ghana. According to him, Ghana needs not to develop on the basis of grants since it is capable of developing in its small way rather than looking elsewhere for help most of the time.