The Sunday Mail
THE country has paid over US$180 million to the People’s Republic of China since the beginning of the year in a bid to unlock more credit lines from Beijing.
This was revealed by Minister of Finance and Economic Development Mr Patrick Chinamasa during today’s breakfast meeting organised by The Business Herald in order to unpack the multi- million dollar deals that were recently signed between Zimbabwe and China .
Zimbabwe’s external debt is estimated to be more than US$10 billion.
“I first went to China in January and so far I have made three visits with the first being to restore relations . As you (sic), we have been borrowing and we never paid back, so, we were labeled bad debtors .
“The Government had guaranteed private sector players like Zisco Steel, Sino Cement through IDC and there was also a loan of US$ 80 million borrowed by Farmers World , so, the Government took over that debt.
“All this basically was unbudgeted for; so, all in all in the past six months we had to cough up US$180 million,” said Minister Chinamasa.
Minister Chinamasa said Treasury was working on a Debt Resolution Strategy, which will be tabled before Cabinet in the next few weeks .
He further noted that China had unlocked financial support, which will go towards economic enablers in sectors that include energy, roads, railway networking, telecommunications agriculture and tourism.
“In the energy sector, we tabled the China Africa Sunlight -Gwayi Thermal Power Station, which is almost US$2 billion and will add 600 megawatts, though it will be an independent producer.
“We also tabled the Hwange Thermal Seven and Eight . In the road sector, we tabled the dualisation of Harare-Beitbridge and Harare –Chirundu and construction of a railway line. In
Agriculture, Dande Project and Osborne Dam , which both have the capacity to open 10 000 hectares of irrigation each,” said Minister Chinamasa.
A US$290 million loan for state run mobile company NetOne and US$98 million for fixed telecoms provider TelOne was also signed.
