UN General Assembly
2003

relief and debt management have been able neither to address nor solve the problems. While appreciating the efforts by the international community in the context of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, we must observe that these efforts have not provided adequate responses or solutions to the problems. This is even more true in the case of the heavily indebted middle-income countries, like Nigeria, for whom no special debt relief mechanism exists, although such machinery was successfully established for countries in Eastern and Central Europe, for instance. Nigeria believes, therefore, that bolder steps must be taken to resolve the heavy debt burden, which for a large number of countries has become unsustainable and a hindrance to development. I am afraid that we have no effective mechanism in place to tackle this problem. Neither the Bretton Woods institutions nor the Paris and London Clubs alone can provide lasting solutions and relief. I therefore believe that this issue is of such significance for the peace and development of such a large portion of the world community that we