UN General Assembly
1995

Denmark, in March this year, has, through its Declaration and Programme of Action, challenged Governments the world over to create opportunities through employment generation and social integration that should eradicate poverty. My delegation hopes that Governments will implement its Programme of Action. The poverty obtaining in many developing countries is being exacerbated by the onerous debt burdens most of these countries have continued to carry since the early 1980s. The Naples terms, with the potential to achieve a 67 per cent debt reduction on either export credits or debt service, is only the beginning in offering durable debt relief to developing countries, especially with regard to those with very high debt service ratios. The creditor countries should move beyond modesty and offer terms that can in the shortest possible time frame reduce debt service ratios of the poorest developing countries to 21 per cent of their export earnings. This is the level recognized by the United Nations as the basic minimum requirement to ensure that the poorest developing countries overcome their debt problems and re-establish credit-worthiness. Coupled with the sustained