Poland’s Plans to Use Debt Relief
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To the Editor: I appreciate your support of the idea of a significant debt write-off for Poland in “Eleventh Hour for Polish Capitalism” (editorial, March 5) and would like to follow up on it. There are at least two approaches to debt repayment. In the first, the lender attempts to collect his debt by any means, including annihilation of the debtor. In the other, a more imaginative banker has interests that span beyond the initial loan to larger investments, greater profits and longer term commitments to the client. With the perspective of the second, more creative money lender, Poland is asking for a program in which the portion of the debt forgiven would not be consumed by society in general, but be invested in programs to improve environmental quality and the Polish infrastructure, creating more attractive and secure conditions for further investment. The Polish Ministry of Environment has recently drafted a proposal, “Redirecting Debt Service for Environmental Recovery Purposes,” in which it proposes using money from a major debt write-off to finance programs for environmental recovery. This idea developed from Polish-American projects on environmental protection and sustainable development at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs in 1988-90. The Polish Government has established and prioritized domestic environmental policies for the most urgent problems, related mainly to (1) the supply of safe drinking water; (2) air quality, through promotion of technologies that reduce environmentally damaging emissions from coal burning; (3) hazardous waste management, to reduce the health risks, and (4) safe food production, through conversion of contaminated lands to nonfood crop production. The Polish Government has also established activities to reduce its contribution to global environmental degradation, including (1) abatement of long-range transboundary air pollution by means of reducing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions; (2) reduction of contamination and eutrophication of the Baltic Sea; (3) reduction in release of greenhouse gases by improving energy efficiency, increasing carbon retention and reducing nonpoint methane emissions, and (4) preservation of biological diversity through environmentally sensitive development in those regions that contain some of the most valuable natural assets in Europe. The proposal calls for a trust fund — fed by money redirected from a portion of foreign debt service — to be allocated to specific projects of international importance. As American society has shown strong support for the political and economic reforms that Poland is pioneering among former Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, it is important to point out the critical link between the environment and these reforms. Poland cannot sustain political changes and improve economic conditions in the face of dropping life expectancy, growing morbidity and mortality, increasing poisoning of air, soils and waters. For that very reason, Poland, deteriorated but liberated from Communism, needs to be treated at least as well as the United States treated its former enemies at the end of World War II. Debt forgiveness for Poland should also be regarded as an investment in further democratization and political stability in Eastern Europe, as well as in a healthier global environment. ZBIGNIEW BOCHNIARZ Visiting Professor University of Minnesota Minneapolis, March 14, 1991 Source : query.nytimes.com |