Sudan asks UK for help on debt relief

September 05, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan has asked the United Kingdom (UK) for help to write off its large foreign debts, as reported by state media.

The oil-producing east African country has been recently engaged in strenuous efforts to woo support for relieving its foreign debt, which according to official figures stands at about $35.7 billion of which a little less than half is the original amount borrowed and the rest is divided between interest and late payment penalties.

Yesterday, Sudan’s official news agency, SUNA, reported that the country’s minister of finance and national economy, Ali Mahmud, held a meeting with the British ambassador Nicholas Kay, in Khartoum yesterday, and asked the UK government to help write off Sudan’s foreign debts.

According to SUNA, the British ambassador pledged to raise the issue of Sudan’s debts with his government.

Last week, Sudan also asked the vice-president of the World Bank, Obiageli Ezekwesili, who visited the country to assess World Bank activities, to help in efforts to write off Sudan’s foreign debts. Sudan claims “it has met all requirements to merit relief or mitigation of these debts.”

But the World Bank’s official said in a press conference in Khartoum on September 01 that the relieving of Sudan’s debts is dependent on the country “implementing economic reforms free of bureaucracy in order to liberate the levers of national economy from state control as well as instituting principles of accountability and corruption fighting.”

Sudan has long complained that political fallout with the West has prevented it from taking advantage of the support offered by the debt relief initiative known as the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)

The International Monetary Fund said in a report last month that Sudan’s foreign debt is projected to reach $37.8 billion in 2010.

Separately, SUNA said that the minister and the British ambassador also discussed arrangements for an expected visit by a delegation of Sudan’s businessmen to the UK at the end of the current month.

The minister, who is expected to lead the delegation, said that the visit “aims to activate trade and investment relations with the UK and learn from its expertise in banking system.”

For his part, the British ambassador said he would organize meetings between Sudan’s delegation and the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The UK’s state minister for Africa, Henry Bellingham, visited Sudan in July and declared that the UK’s new coalition government is keen to increase trade relations with Sudan.

“One of our top priorities is to increase trade with different countries around the world, particularly in Africa,” Bellingham said.

(ST)