Geneva, 5 November 2009 -- The effects of the global recession on the debt burdens of developing countries -- and the difficult choices many nations increasingly face over whether to devote scarce resources to servicing debts or to stimulating their economies and providing health and social services to their populations -- will be discussed at UNCTAD´s 7th Debt Management Conference.
The 9-11 November meeting will focus in large part on the impacts of the world financial crisis on the abilities of a number of developing countries to manage sustainably burdens of debt that were a challenge even during the years of rapid global economic growth prior to the crisis. The session will be attended by over 300 participants from some 100 countries, many of them government finance, debt, and treasury officials, banking representatives and academics specializing in the fields of development and development finance, along with officials from multilateral organizations.
The United Nations General Assembly has requested UNCTAD to keep it informed on various issues related to debt and debt management, and recent UNCTAD research has led to a proposal for a temporary moratorium on official debt for low-income nations. As countries struggle to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) -- which include halving extreme poverty by 2015 -- UNCTAD has reported that an increasing share of government revenues is now being devoted to debt servicing at a time when governments are strapped for funds to pay for health, education, and other services that reduce poverty and raise living standards.
The organization´s Debt Management and Financial Analysis System Programme (DMFAS) has stepped up its efforts to help developing countries strengthen their abilities to manage public debt. The programme has provided support to over 100 institutions in more than 65 countries over the past 27 years, and lately is fielding increased requests as countries struggle to cope with the economic downturn. The Conference will be followed by a DMFAS Advisory Group meeting from 12-13 November at which DMFAS software users, development partners, and donors to the programme will express their views and propose ways to move forward. The latest major version of the DMFAS debt-management software, called DMFAS 6, will be unveiled at the conference. This new version is intended to better suit debt management institutions´ needs, especially in terms of debt securities and analytical tools.
UNCTAD also has begun a major project titled Promoting Responsible Sovereign Lending and Borrowing which will seek -- through consensus building -- to develop a set of guidelines on sovereign lending and borrowing.
UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi will address the opening session of the conference, followed by M. Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, Secretary of the Economic Relations Division of the Ministry of Finance of Bangladesh, who will speak on "Implications of the current financial crisis for developing countries."
Among the topics of panel discussions over the three days of meetings are "Burgeoning global debt: impact on developing countries"; "Economic recession and risk of debt distress"; "Debt defaults and debt crises"; "Debt strategies"; "New developments and guidelines in debt reporting and statistics"; "Debt management and the auditor: the relevance and effectiveness of debt audit for debt management"; and "Capacity building needs: countries´ perspectives."
