The Government agreed today to cancel NOK 143 million of Côte d’Ivoire’s debt to Norway. The agreement with Côte d’Ivoire is based on a multilateral framework agreement concluded in the Paris Club, which is a joint forum for creditor countries, in April 2002.

The agreement with Norway provides for the cancellation of a total of NOK 183 million up to December 2004. However, the debt relief was suspended from the end of March 2003 both because of unrest in Côte d’Ivoire and because the country was off track vis-à-vis the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Norway has decided, therefore, to withhold the rest of the debt relief, i.e. approximately NOK 40 million. This amount will be cancelled if and when Côte d’Ivoire resumes its economic reforms and a new agreement has been concluded.

In keeping with the Norwegian debt plan, the debt will be cancelled without taking any funds from the budget. Thus, the debt relief will serve as a supplement rather than resulting in a reduction in other assistance to poor countries.