Khartoum & Juba to meet next October in Washington to discuss external debt
July 18, 2013, (KHARTOUM) – The World Bank has agreed to provide technical assistance to Sudan in order to enable it to prepare a comprehensive document on combating poverty, officials here said today.
The offer came during a meeting between the World Bank country Director for Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan, Bella Bird with the minister of finance and national economy Ali Mahmood Abdel-Rasool at his office on Thursday.
But Bird pressed Khartoum to determine the exact requirements needed for the preparation of the document while promising to mobilize the required resources from the donors community for the same purpose.
Abdel-Rasool on his end urged the World Bank to provide more technical support and attract donor support for strengthening the efforts of Sudan in the preparation of the anti-poverty document.
The World Bank official also communicated the date of the meeting between the technical team on Sudan’s debt next October in Washington with the participation of delegates from Khartoum and Juba.
The purpose of this meeting would be to review progress regarding the zero solution to address the external debt issue.
Sudan’s external debt is estimated to have grown by 27% since 2008 from $32.6 billion to $41.4 billion in 2011. The IMF forecasted the debt level to reach $43.7 billion in 2012 and $45.6 billion in 2013. The latter represents 83% of Sudan’s 2011 GDP, which was $55.1 billion.
Around three quarters of Sudan’s external debt are owed to the Paris Club of creditor nations and other non-member states. The remaining balance is equally divided between commercial banks as well as international and regional financial bodies.
Khartoum and Juba are to sort out the issue of dividing the portion of pre-partition external debt each side will carry.
The head of Sudan’s negotiating team on post-secession issues Idris Abdel-Gader stated last March that the two countries agreed to work together to address Sudan’s debt and reach out to donors in a bid to have it written it off within two years.
Abdel-Gader added that if the debt relief was not possible, then the only remaining option is to split the debt between the two countries.
An IMF official said last April that it is unlikely that creditors would agree to offer debt relief to Sudan for political reasons even if all technical requirements are satisfied.
(ST)