7.
Expresses its concern that the level of implementation and the reduction of overall
debt stock under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative are still low, and that
the Initiative is not intended to offer a comprehensive solution to the long-term debt burden;
8.
Reiterates its conviction that, for heavily indebted poor countries to achieve debt
sustainability, long-term growth and poverty reduction goals, the debt relief under the
above-mentioned Initiative will not be sufficient and that additional resource transfers, in the
form of grants and concessional loans and the removal of trade barriers and better prices for their
exports, would be required to ensure sustainability and permanent exit from debt overhang;
9.
Regrets the absence of mechanisms to find appropriate solutions to the unsustainable
foreign debt burden of middle- and low-income heavily indebted countries, and that, to date,
little headway has been made in redressing the unfairness of the current system of debt
resolution, which continues to place the interests of the lenders above those of indebted countries
and the poor in them, and therefore calls for an intensification of efforts to devise effective and
equitable mechanisms to cancel or reduce substantially the foreign debt burden of all developing
countries, in particular those severely affected by the devastation of natural disasters, such as
tsunamis and hurricanes, and by armed conflicts;
10. Acknowledges that, in least developed countries and in several low- and
middle-income countries, unsustainable levels of external debt continue to create a considerable
barrier to economic and social development and increase the risk that the Millennium
Development Goals for development and poverty reduction will not be attained;
11. Recognizes that debt relief can play a key role in liberating resources that should be
directed towards activities consistent with attaining sustainable growth and development,
including poverty reduction and the achievement of the development goals, including those set
out in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, and therefore that debt relief measures, where
appropriate, should be pursued vigorously and expeditiously, ensuring that they do not replace
alternative sources of financing and that they are accompanied by an increase in official
development assistance;
12. Recalls once again the call on industrialized countries, as expressed in the
Millennium Declaration, to implement the enhanced programme of debt relief for the heavily
indebted poor countries without further delay and to agree to cancel all official bilateral debts of
those countries in return for their making demonstrable commitments to poverty reduction;
13. Urges the international community, including the United Nations system, the
Bretton Woods institutions and the private sector, to take appropriate measures and actions for
the implementation of the pledges, commitments, agreements and decisions of the major
United Nations conferences and summits, including the Millennium Summit, the World
Conference on Human Rights, the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination,
Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, the World Conference on Sustainable Development and the
International Conference on Financing for Development, in particular those relating to the
question of the external debt problem of developing countries, in particular of heavily indebted
poor countries, least developed countries and countries with economies in transition;
14. Recalls the pledge contained in the Political Declaration annexed to
General Assembly resolution S-24/2, adopted on 1 July 2000 by the Assembly, to find effective,
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