The world’s richest countries - the G8 - have agreed to write off $40 billion debt owed by 18 mainly African countries. The package was agreed upon by G8 finance ministers meeting in London ahead of the July summit of the G8 leaders in Scotland. Under the agreement, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank will immediately write off 100 per cent of the debt owed to them by 18 countries. It saves the countries in this category a cool $1.5 billion a year. The generosity is a welcome move on the part of G8 group that includes the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia, all industrialised democracies. An international effort such as this to help ease the debt burden of countries reeling under poverty, internal conflicts and diseases had long been overdue. A set of truly challenging tasks is descending on the G8 members as they meet this week in a summit where they would have the opportunity to demonstrate their determination to radically transform the lives of the millions living in abject misery.

However, the anti-poverty campaigners want more nations to benefit from the generosity of the industrialised world. For example, a report released by the UNDP last week said the rapid growth of some of the South and South-East Asian economies, including China and India, is overshadowing the relatively poor performance of Asian Least Developing Countries (LDCs). Thus, while the G8 has focussed on the Afri-can nations, it has neglected some of the poorest Asian LDCs that comprise of four landlocked countries — Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Laos — and seven island states — the Maldives, Kiribati, Samoa, Sol-omon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. These LDCs too should be eligible for debt relief under the HIPC (highly-indebted poor countries initiative) on grounds of low per capita income and low GDP growth rate. As it is, the UNDP report urges for a more robust global partnership through trade, aid and debt relief to accelerate development in these countries. It also calls for tripling the official development assistance to them. The Asian LDCs would benefit if the rich countries supported their development activities by introducing preferential schemes and supporting investment in infrastructure, quite apart from stimulating trade liberalisation.