Southern Africa salutes debt write-off plan

Southern African nations on Sunday saluted an agreement by the world's most industrial nations to write off debt owed by 18 of the world's poorest countries, but asked for "greater movement" on trade and agriculture to access world markets.
"The president is encouraged and believes this is a step in the right direction. It will go a long way towards the regeneration of the continent," said South African President Thabo Mbeki's spokesman Bheki Khumalo.
The announcement of the 40 billion-dollar debt write-off by British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown came after a two-day meeting of the Group of Eight's (G8) financial ministers in London.
"The write off is one of the key demands of NEPAD," Khumalo told AFP, referring to Africa's home-grown rescue plan, the New Partnership for Africa's Development.
Devised in 2001, NEPAD aims to revitalise the continent's ailing economy by attracting private investors with progress in conflict resolution and improved transparency.
"Across the board it's a reaction of satisfaction, gratitude and solidarity," said Mozambican Prime Minister Luisa Diogo, whose country is one of 14 in Africa to benefit from the deal. "When we have external debt, it compromises our entire state and institutions," Diogo told AFP in Maputo.
Emerging from 16 years of brutal civil war, Mozambique is one of Africa's poorest countries with more than half of its 17 million population living on less than a dollar per day.
Its government in 2002 launched a poverty reduction programme which allowed it to become one of the first countries to avail itself of debt waivers under the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) initiative of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The move saw Mozambique's debt slashed to 1.6 billion dollars.
In neighbouring Zambia, another country to benefit under the new write-off, the decision was also welcomed. Close to 64 percent of Zambia's 10 million people live on less than one dollar a day.
But South Africa's Khumalo said the issue of debt required "even greater movement."
"We need to move on issues such as a fairer trade regime and that of agricultural subsidies," which are still biased in favour of the northern hemisphere, Khumalo said.
African nations this week demanded that the West scrapped its farm export subsidies before a crucial World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting that will shape the future of the global trading system.