By Chileshe Mwango
Opposition Socialist Party Leader Fred Mmembe has observed that China’s call for multilateral development banks to offer debt relief to Zambia will further complicate efforts to restructure the country’s borrowing.
China’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a media briefing that the key to easing Zambia’s debt burden lies in the participation of multilateral financial institutions and commercial creditors in the debt-relief efforts, a call that Dr Mmembe says the World Bank Chief has explicitly rejected.
Dr. Mmembe tells Phoenix News that as things stand today, the much bragged about debt restructuring exercise is sitting in limbo waiting for the next dice to roll.
He says what China is simply asking is why the loans from International Monetary Fund-IMF-, World Bank, Africa Development Bank are excluded from the debt restructuring and still being serviced by the Zambian government.
Recently International Monetary Fund-IMF- Chief Kristalina Georgieva said it had reached an understanding in principle with China about a debt restructuring strategy that could help resolve Zambia’s debt crisis.
CREDIT: PHOENIX NEWS
