NEW YORK CITY (via PLDT) – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on
Thursday afternoon (Sept. 15, New York time) rallied the United Nations to take collective
action in facing four great challenges that most member states of the world body
experience today.
The President, the 20th speaker at the
2005 World Summit-High Level Plenary Meeting of the 60th Session of the UN
General Assembly, said the great expanse of challenges – the deepening cut of
poverty, the relentless surge of terrorism, the burgeoning debt problem, and the soaring
prices of oil – "bid us to find courage in our solidarity."
On the debt burden, she said the Philippines has
applauded debt relief for the highly indebted poor countries, but she noted that there are
many middle income countries that are highly indebted and have large populations surviving
on less than a dollar a day.
For this, the President proposed a large-scale 50
percent conversion of debt for the Millennium Development Goal’s anti-poverty
financing programs.
The President’s proposal was widely applauded
by the gallery.
"We are not asking for debt forgiveness or
debt cancellation," she stressed.
The proposal seeks to convert the debt service on
principal amount into equities of new projects of at least equal value and with their own
potential earnings.
