As finance ministers from the world's richest countries gathered in London on Friday, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said he believed they could make progress toward "the biggest debt settlement the world has ever seen," a plan to erase billions of dollars owed by the world's poorest countries to international lenders.
But other participants at the gathering adopted a more muted view, hinting that some nations may still need to be won over before endorsing the landmark formula for debt relief that the US and UK agreed on this week. In Washington, the White House officially announced the agreement on Friday.
Treasury Secretary John Snow of the US and Brown are among the finance chiefs from the Group of Eight industrialized nations meeting for two days in London in advance of next month's Group of Eight summit meeting in Scotland.
"Much is still to be done, but I think there is a will to do this," Brown said Friday in a radio interview, referring to the plan to free 18 nations, most of them in Africa, from obligations to repay an estimated US$16.7 billion in debt to foreign lenders.
As this year's head of the Group of Eight, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has put the effort to relieve Africa's poverty and ease its debt burden at the head of an agenda that includes curbing global warming.
A breakthrough on the debt issue would enhance his position as he prepares for what is likely to be a contentious summit meeting at a time of deepening strains between the UK and its EU partners.
But it was not clear whether all Group of Eight members accepted the debt-relief plan. Besides the US and UK, the members are France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia.
Arriving in London, for instance, Caio Koch-Weser, Germany's deputy finance minister, said: "I can only say we are working on it."
Romilly Greenhill, a policy specialist with ActionAid International, an advocacy group based in South Africa, said the agreement had not yet won universal approval.
"France, Germany and to a lesser extent Japan are holding back," Greenhill said, because of concerns about the cost of compensating the lenders for the assets they would have to write off. Initially, she said, those countries had favored extending more limited debt relief to only the five poorest countries.
"It's by no means 100 percent certain" that the talks here will produce an agreement, she said. Additionally, the Group of Eight may wish to wait until it meets to announce an agreement with greater fanfare, she said.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The