CSO Letter to WB President Re: Bank governance reform - August 28, 2008

August 28, 2008

Mr. Robert B. Zoellick, President
World Bank Headquarters
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433

Dear Mr. Zoellick,

Re.: World Bank governance

That the world is at an historical crossroads is evidenced by the rise of powerful new global economies, financial crises in the US and Europe, the high prices for commodities most notably food and fuel, and the overwhelming climate change crisis. This reality has been recognized in numerous fora such as the recent Commonwealth Heads of State conference, which agreed that in the context of these global crises it is more important than ever to have ambitious reform of the international financial institutions.

ECA-Watch letter to the Export Credit Group (ECG) of the OECD Re: Civil society consultation - August 21, 2008

August 21, 2008

Ms. Nicole Bollen
Chairwoman,
Working Party on Export Credits and Credit Guarantees and of the Participants to the Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits
OECD
2, rue André Pascal
F-75775 Paris Cedex 16

Fax : c/o 01 44 30 61 58
Email : c/o Xcred.Secretariat@oecd.org

Dear Ms. Bollen,

Thank you for your letter of July 29, inviting ECA-Watch members to participate in an ECG consultation on November 18.

Letter to Minister Flaherty Re: Cancelling Haiti's bi-lateral and multi-lateral debt - June 12, 2008

12 June 2008

Hon. Minister Christine Lagarde Hon. Minister Giulio Tremonti,
Hon. Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer
Hon. Minister Peer Steinbrück Hon. Minister Jim Flaherty
Hon. Henry Paulson Jr., Secretary of the Treasury
Hon. Minister Fukushiro Nukaga Hon. Minister Alexei Kudrin

Re: Open letter to G8 Finance Ministers calling for immediate debt cancellation for Haiti

The undersigned civil society organizations from the Group of Eight (G8) nations and other European organizations urge all G8 Governments to support immediate multilateral and bilateral debt cancellation for Haiti or a moratorium on all debt service payments until such a time as the debt is cancelled.

Response from EDC on Tenke project - June 5, 2008

June 5, 2008
Ms. Karyn Keenan and Mr. Denis Tougas
c/o The Halifax Initiative
153 Chapel Street
Ottawa ON KIN 1H5

This refers to your letter of April 25 to Mr. Eric Siegel, President and Chief Executive Officer of Export Development Canada concerning the Tenke Fungurume project. We are pleased to have an opportunity to continue our dialogue with you including our earlier exchange of letters in 2007.

Letter to Eric Siegel, President and CEO, Export Development Canada Re. Tenke Fungurume concession in the DRC - April 25, 2008

April 25, 2008

Mr. Eric Siegel
President and Chief Executive Officer
EDC
151 O’Connor St.
Ottawa, ON
K1A 1K3

Dear Mr. Siegel:

On March 20, the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo publicly released the report of the Mining Contract Review Commission. The Commission is an inter-ministerial body mandated to review numerous contracts that were awarded to mining companies between 1996 and 2005 in the DRC. The Commission confirms that many of the contracts are highly irregular and that their terms are extremely unjust. The government body recommends that a significant number of these agreements be annulled and in some cases, renegotiated.

Letter to Minister Flaherty Re: Peer review under the OECD Common Approaches - March 28, 2008

March 28, 2008

The Honourable James Flaherty
Minister of Finance
House of Commons
Wellington St.
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6

Dear Minister Flaherty:

I am writing with respect to the 2007 OECD Revised Council Recommendation on Common Approaches on the Environment and Officially Supported Export Credits. The Recommendation currently lacks a credible mechanism to monitor Member implementation and I write to urge Canada to support the adoption of a peer review system. I understand that the Secretariat of the OECD Export Credit Group (ECG) intends to include the issue of peer review for the Common Approaches in the agenda of the upcoming ECG meeting in April 2008. A peer review system is essential to generate credible information for use in the 2010 report to the OECD Council on the implementation of the Recommendation.

Letter to UN Secretary-General on external debt - February 29, 2008

February 29, 2008
The Honorable Ban Ki-Moon
Secretary General
United Nations
New York, NY

Dear Secretary General:

At the end of this year, governments of the world will meet in Doha, Qatar to evaluate progress in implementing the Monterrey Consensus. One of the critical elements of this consensus is the issue of external debt and its role in financing for development.

Second Letter from EDC to HI Re: "Dirty Business, Dirty Practices" - November 5, 2007

November 5, 2007

Ms. Karyn Keenan
Program Officer
Halifax Initiative
104-153 Chapel Street
Ottawa ON KIN 1H5

Dear Ms. Keenan:

This is in response to your letter of September 17. Your letter contains many questions and comments which I will answer by focusing on the key issues that you raise.

The first issue raised refers to Export Development Canada’s practices related to public consultations and whether this is a requirement of our environmental review process.

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