Zim ups tempo on debt resolution

PRESIDENT MNANGAGWA’S scheduled engagements at the African Development Bank (AfDB)’s annual meetings in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, this week will add impetus to Zimbabwe’s arrears clearance and debt resolution programme, it has been learnt.

As a follow-up to the Fourth HighLevel Debt Resolution Forum held in Harare last week, the President — who will be leaving for the North African country tomorrow, after an invitation by his Egyptian counterpart, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi — is expected to engage representatives of creditor nations.

On Tuesday, he will join other leaders who will be headlining the HighLevel Presidential Dialogue, which officially kicks off the five-day series of meetings.

President Mnangagwa is among the first speakers to deliver introductory remarks to the plenary after AfDB president Dr Akinwumi Adesina and the host president.

The dialogue will run under the theme “The Changing Global Financial Architecture and the Role of Multilateral Development Banks”.

Organisers of the meetings have scheduled a special round-table on Zimbabwe’s debt and arrears clearance in El Salam City on Wednesday evening.

And Zimbabwe will take the opportunity to outline its strategy on resolving its debt and arrears to international financiers and creditors.

The arrears clearance and debt resolution process is being driven by former Mozambican president Joachim Chissano, who is the highlevel facilitator, and Dr Adesina, who was similarly appointed by President Mnangagwa last year to champion the programme.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube told The Sunday Mail on the sidelines of meetings in Harare that Government was pursuing an integrated approach towards arrears clearance and debt resolution.

The country is engaging external financiers while negotiating with international finance institutions for partial debt relief.

Government, he said, had also started compensating white former commercial farmers, with the authorities set to float 10-year debt instruments to finance the payments.

“There are many options