40% of French ODA is largely ECA/commercial debt cancellation

(Eurodad, Brussels, 16 November 2005) French NGO, Coordination Sud, has published a new report on French Official Development Aid (ODA) and the politics of development cooperation, in which it notes that a significant part of the cancelled debt was in fact export credit debt – generated by the French export credit agency COFACE. The purpose of export credit operations is clearly very distinct from that of development, says the report, and therefore the cancellation of these debts should never be counted as aid.