Zim, creditors to hold another round of debt clearance talks

THE next round of structured meetings on Zimbabwe arrears clearance and debt resolution process will be held in Harare next week, as efforts continue to resolve the country’s external debt liabilities, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has said.

In 2022, President Mnangagwa appointed AfDB president Dr Akinwumi Adesina and former Mozambican president Joachim Chissano to champion the country’s arrears clearance and debt resolution process.

The AfDB in February said Zimbabwe had taken a major step in its dialogue with creditors in February this year when it organised a second structured dialogue platform meeting on its arrears clearance and debt resolution process.

This followed discussions with development partners last December.

Supported by the AfDB, senior members of the Zimbabwean government met with the country’s development partners—diplomatic representatives of mostly creditor countries—and multilateral finance institutions, including the AfDB.

President Mnangagwa told delegates at the second meeting with creditors that Zimbabwe’s debt burden of roughly US$17,5 billion continued to weigh heavily on the country’s development efforts. He emphasized the impact on human development.

He assured delegates that Zimbabwe was committed to clearing all its outstanding debt arrears to its creditors, According to the AfDB, the next high-level forum will be held on Thursday next week. The last meeting was held last month where stakeholders expressed satisfaction with the engagement process.

Zimbabwe’s debt overhang has prevented the country from accessing long terms lines of credit from international financial institutions to fund developmental programmes.

The last meeting was facilitated by Dr Luisa Diogo, the former prime minister of Mozambique. Dr Diogo is the lead technical advisor to Joaquim Chissano. Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube chaired and led a team of senior officials in the third engagement
meeting with development partners and creditors.

Minister Ncube
The meeting brought together three sector working groups: two that had earlier been established—one on macroeconomic growth and stability reforms, and another on governance reforms—as well as a third new sector working group on land tenure reforms, compensation of former farm owners and the resolution of Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (BIPPAs).

During the previous meeting, Secretary for Finance and Economic Development George Guvamatanga reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to the arrears clearance and debt resolution process. He also said the Government was committed to delivering on the policy reforms arising from the three reform matrices of the three-sector working groups.

Emphasizing the resolve of all partners to support Zimbabwe in working through its debt issues, Dr Diogo said: “We are not here to talk about Zimbabwe, but rather with Zimbabwe.”

Capturing progress, Mr Andrew Bvumbe, head of the Zimbabwe Public Debt Management Office, also told participants at the last meeting that there was genuine interest and commitment on all sides.

“We are together in this endeavour, and I think we can all agree that we have something to celebrate,” he said.

Development partners expressed overall satisfaction with the process. They acknowledged the swiftness with which the sector working group on land tenure, the Global Compensation Deed and the resolution of the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (BIPPAs) was established. The meeting brought clarity to the reform agenda of the three-sector working groups. Participants agreed that an International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-monitored program was a key component of the economic reform sector working group.

Prof Ncube told participants that realistically, this staff-monitored programme would be implemented after Zimbabwe’s elections, expected later this year. He told the meeting—as did World Bank country manager Majorie Mpundu, representing the economic reforms sector working group—that
a funded staff monitoring program was necessary to ensure effective implementation of the program and reforms.-herald