FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Let me start by thanking members of Congress from both sides of the aisle who are present today. Your leadership and support are invaluable and we appreciate all you have done to bring the cause this far. I would also like to thank the religious community for the tremendous job they have done in bringing this critical issue of poor country debt relief to the nation's attention. In addition, I would like to commend Bono's remarkable contribution to this effort.

In little more than two weeks the 106^th Congress will conclude. It is absolutely vital that before it adjourns Congress enables the United States to pay its full part in funding the enhanced HIPC debt relief initiative for the world's poorest countries that was agreed last year at Cologne. The United States has led the world in fighting world poverty in this Millennium Year. But we cannot lead if we fail to live up to our commitments.

That is why we are urging Congress to authorize and appropriate $435 million to finance our share of the debt relief program for those countries that made the reforms necessary to qualify. Investing just three hundredths of one percent of America's entire FY2001 budget in the future of some of the poorest countries in the world should not be a difficult decision for us to take.

In addition - crucially - we are requesting that Congress provide authorization for the IMF to make full use of interest income from off-market gold sales to finance its share of enhanced HIPC debt relief.

Every day that we fail to fund our commitments to this effort has real human costs.

• Lack of US funding has already stalled the enhanced HIPC initiative in Latin America. Bolivia - a model economic reformer and strategic U.S. ally in coca eradication - will not receive the $850 million in debt relief because of the delay in U.S. contribution to the HIPC Trust Fund. Over two-thirds of the population live in poverty, yet without HIPC debt relief Bolivia would continue to spend $35 a year per person on debt servicing - more than its per capita spending on health or education.

• Honduras is one of the poorest countries in our Hemisphere; over half of its people live in poverty and nearly half of the rural population suffers from malnutrition. Yet for every dollar the government spends on health care, its sends $4.00 to its creditors to paying off old debts. Earlier this month, the international creditors agreed that Honduras met the qualifications for $556 million in debt relief. Yet Honduras will not be able to put all of these resources to bear on attacking poverty until Congress acts.

African HIPC countries -- countries that are committed to achieving rapid poverty reduction and to tackle the scourge of diseases such as HIV/AIDs -- will also soon be affected if the US does not play its part. Thanks to some initial contributions from the European Union and other creditors, there is funding for the early African countries to qualify for debt relief. However, because these donors have based additional contributions to the HIPC Trust Fund on an American contribution, additional delay in a US contribution to the Trust Fund will also put debt relief in jeopardy for many of the African countries in the HIPC program.

The United States is the most prosperous and economic successful country that there has ever been. No country has a greater stake in successful economic development of the poorest economies. And as the world's leaders gather this week to attend the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Prague, the importance of implementing the HIPC initiative in support of poverty reduction and growth in the poorest countries is one issue on which everyone is agreed. The world is waiting for us to do our full and fair share to keep this initiative going. Thank you.