The United States has cancelled half of the debt owed it by Cote d’Ivoire (US$214 million), according to an agreement signed on Friday in Abidjan between the US ambassador, Phillip Carter III and the Ivorian minister of Economy and Finance, Mrs Nialé Kaba.
The agreement involves debts owed the US State Department for Agriculture, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US Export-Import Bank.
“The United States believes progress in Cote d’Ivoire would be through economic growth. The agreement will enable the Ivorian government to use the fund to increase in the country’s infrastructure such as the motorways and bridges and sectors such as health and education,” Mr Carter said.
He said the debt forgiveness was one of the steps taken to give the country the tools needed to develop.
The decision by the United States to cancel the Ivorian debt was formalised after meetings of the Paris Club in June last year after the country reached the final point of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC).
