The government is considering waiving the interest on Haiti’s debt to Taiwan for five years to help the earthquake-ravaged Caribbean ally rebuild its infrastructure, Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) said on Wednesday.
Asked why the government had not formulated a debt cancellation plan for Haiti as other countries did, Yang said the way Taiwan had offered loans to Haiti differed from other countries.
The money lent to Haiti was taken from the country’s foreign reserves via lending contracts with two commercial banks instead of directly from the treasury.
Since the debt was a commercial loan, the government could not write off its principal and could only waive the interest payments, Yang said.
The proposal is expected to be finalized “within a week or two,” pending approval of the Executive Yuan, Yang said when approached by reporters at an event for the rescue and medical teams who provided aid in Haiti.
Under the plan, the interest on the amount Haiti owes to two Taiwanese banks would be repaid using the ministry’s official budget, Yang said.
It has been reported that Taiwan holds at least US$91 million of Haiti’s estimated US$1 billion in foreign debt, but the government has refused to confirm the figure.
Yang did not reveal the amount of debt in the proposal, but said that, “it would be able to substantially reduce Haiti’s debt burden.”
As Haiti tries to recover from the disaster, Venezuela and the G7 — Canada, the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — have agreed to write off the country’s debts.
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