Wow! Yippee! Debt Relief for 18 nations!!! = which ones?

international | anti-capitalism | news report Sunday June 12, 2005 12:17 by i

So which lucky poorest nation has got debt relief?

The term "Least Developed Countries (LDCs)" describes the world's poorest countries with following 3 criteria:

Low-income
- a GDP per capita (under $900 for inclusion, above $1,035 for graduation);

Human resource weakness
- based on indicators of nutrition, health, education, and adult literacy;

Economic vulnerability
- based on indicators of the instability of agricultural production; the instability of exports of goods and services; the economic importance of non-traditional activities (share of manufacturing and modern services in GDP); merchandise export concentration; and the handicap of economic smallness.

Here are the names of 52 of the poorest nations on earth, of which 18 african ones just got debt relief which will become effective over a year and a half.

List of Least Developed Countries (LDCs)

AFRICA :

Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi
Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Djibouti
Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia
Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau
Lesotho , Liberia
Madagascar , Malawi , Mali , Mauritania , Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda
Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan
Tanzania, Togo, Uganda
Zambia

ASIA :
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan
Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic,
Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Timor-Leste
Yemen

Australia and the Pacific :

Kiribati
Samoa, Solomon Islands
Tuvalu
Vanuatu

Latin America and the Caribbean
Haiti, Bolivia

*$* Let us presume its not Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon islands, Tuvalu or Vanuatu, they've been waiting for the USA to honour commonwealth commitments for almost 20 years.