Belgium reschedules RI's debts

JAKARTA: The Indonesian government and its Belgian counterpart signed last week a debt-rescheduling agreement, as part of a move to help ease the burden on Indonesia in sovereign debt repayment.

Under the deal, some 6.8 million euro in debt, which was supposed to fall due by the end of 2002 and 2003, will be extended by another 10 years.

According to a press release from the Belgian Embassy in Jakarta, the rescheduling deal was a followup action from what had been agreed to by the two countries during the third Paris Club meeting in April last year, in which the club granted Indonesia a US$5.4 billion foreign debt rescheduling facility.

The Paris Club groups together the country's major sovereign creditors.