TUC objects to HIPC

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has asked the government to open a full national debate on the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, reports The Ghanaian Times.

It explained that the issue was too important for the government alone to take a decision on.

Mr Kwasi Adu Amankwah, the Secretary General, told a press conference held in Accra on Wednesday, to state the Union's stand on the HIPC issue.

He described the HIPC Initiative as just an accounting exercise for creditors and consequently cautioned the Government against hastily joining it without knowing its full implications.

Mr Adu Amankwah said that HIPC was only to ensure that developing countries complied with IMF reforms, which had already widened and perpetuated poverty in Ghana.

Even though the initiative was supposedly aimed at helping poor countries to clear their debts arrears, "what it does in fact is to get the countries to continue more stringent structural reforms."