Debt swap for PICs
A COVID-19 Economic Recovery Task Force, set up last year by Forum Economic Ministers has suggested three proposals to help Pacific Island countries including Fiji to address the financial impacts of the pandemic.
Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat economics senior adviser Denton Rarawa said the proposals included a monitoring and evaluation framework, debt swap and Pacific Humanitarian Pathway in dealing with freight costs.
Mr Rarawa said a regional initiative paper, including these proposals would be presented at the upcoming Forum Economic Ministers virtual meeting.
In an interview regarding the first proposal of monitoring, he said it was very important to keep track of all assistance receive by countries for the purpose of COVID-19 pandemic.
“The monitoring will be based on national responses to the pandemic as well as international support received by the region and it has 12 categories,” Mr Rarawa said.
“As you may be aware, since the pandemic erupted, a lot of activities, assistance and support has been received by the region but it is very important to keep track of all the assistance.
“The second proposal on debt swap is very important because most countries in the region are classified as high debt risk countries. This means that their debt level are very high and their risk of defaulting is also very high.”
The debt swap, he added was to get ministers to find solutions to addresses debt issues in the region.
“We are also proposing a Regional Debt Conference to be convened at the end of the year or early next year to allow desbtor countries and creditors to come together to resolve the debt issue in terms of debt relief and debt restructuring. “Freight costs have increased so there is a proposal to address this and how can we reduce through formsusing the Pacific Humanitarian Pathway on COVID-19.”