It aims to ensure that debt relief is the occasion for new investment in human development, especially education and health care, and that the citizens of the poorer countries become not just the recipients but rather the protagonists of such investment programmes. But we have to move forward more decisively so that the maximum possible number of countries can have access to debt relief by the end of the year 2000. To do this we must ensure that the funds promised for this initiative are effectively made available on time. A second area where some progress has been made is that of corruption and transparency. Nothing has damaged the image of international co-operation more than corruption.
Corruption eats at the very roots of democracy.
We must always remember that it is the poor who pay the principal price of corruption. Yet it is only in the last few years that we have been able to bring the issue of corruption clearly to the table of development dialogue. Corruption will not, however, be eliminated by criticism and denunciation alone. International instruments to identify and punish corruption must be put in place. Development policy must include the means of increasing the technical capacity of the poorer countries to address corruption in the economic sphere, in government and in public administration, as well as in the legal and juridical field.