Isaac Adongo, Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament's Finance Committee, has said that Ghana won't be able to get debt forgiveness from China because of the Asian giant's current economic and geopolitical position.
Mr. Adongo stated that the political and economic ideology of China is not in sync with the conditions of the Paris Club, posing a greater risk for any debt relief, when discussing the difficulties Ghana's plea to China for softer conditions to repay debts owed to China on Eyewitness News on Citi FM.“Despite the fact that China is our largest bilateral lender, it has been difficult to get China to come to the table. We need our friendly nations and the bilateral countries to come together and form a committee. The fact that China views the Paris Club as nothing more than a Western influence and would always prefer to have equal arrangements with individual nations adds complexity to the situation for China.Mr. Adongo also stressed that the timing of Ghana's engagement with China is not encouraging as there are other African countries seeking the same help from the Asian powerhouse.“Unfortunately for us, we have arrived in China at a time when other African nations are already lining up to borrow money from them. As a result, Ghana will have a hard time getting ahead of that line because whatever China agrees with Ghana will have to be fair to the other nations we came to meet. Additionally, China traditionally holds that a sovereign nation cannot be poor; rather, it holds that a nation can be broke, just as we are broke, but have asserts and other means of collecting their money, so China does not believe in debt forgiveness.
The legislator from Bolgatanga Central also lamented Ghana's insignificant progress toward debt sustainability despite the government's decision to implement its infamous domestic debt exchange program with the intention of decreasing the country's debt stock.
