Zimbabwe owes over $12 billion to foreign creditors. A significant portion of that is made up of arrears. In 2022, Zimbabwe engaged the African Development Bank president, Akinwumi Adesina, to facilitate talks with creditors to reach a deal on clearing the arrears.
At a meeting with ambassadors from creditor countries on Monday, Adesina spoke on the urgency for a deal, saying the impasse between Zimbabwe and the West has lasted too long, hurting the economy. Here are excerpts from his speech:
I am aware that since our last meeting, there have been a few changes, as some Ambassadors and colleagues we started with have left, while new ones have arrived. I wish to welcome the new Ambassadors: Ambassador Pete Vowles of the United Kingdom; Ambassador Paul Bertrand Barets of France; Ambassador Adler Aristilde of Canada; and Ambassador Pamela Tremont of the United States of America.
You have come to join a moving train towards the arrears clearance and debt resolution for Zimbabwe.
You join all your colleague Ambassadors and heads of missions that have been here before you and all the highly dedicated development partners, working assiduously with the Government of Zimbabwe to end the 23 years of sanctions, that have left Zimbabwe with a pile of debt which has risen to $21 billion — $13 billion for external debt and $8 billion of domestic debt.
Even wars never last this long.
It is clearly time to bring this to a close, end the decades of untold damage to the economy of Zimbabwe, and the suffering of its people, and have a new beginning with collective hope, aspiration and shared prosperity, for its people, today and well into the future.
Dialogue is the antidote to the pains of differences and disagreements. In dialogue, we get to listen to and understand each other, respect each other, manage differences and reach common ground for constructive engagement, as we heal old wounds and restore a spirit of reconciliation, and national cohesion, seed enduring hope, for lasting peace and economic security.
We get to put the past behind us and open new vistas of hope for a better future. For a better future awaits the youth and the women of Zimbabwe. A better future for this beautiful nation with wonderful people, and scenic natural beauty, from old ruins of the Great Zimbabwe to the lush green areas of Leopard Rock and the Victoria Falls, Mosi oa tunya, the smoke that thunders.
It is time to make Zimbabwe beautiful again.
No one, no matter how strong, can run up a hill carrying on their back piles of sand. The $21 billion debt of Zimbabwe, of which the bulk is arrears, has made arrears the new debt stacked like piles of sandbags on the back of Zimbabwe.
We all agree we must play our part to correct this anomaly and give a new lease of life to this nation and its people, so Zimbabwe can run again.
Run, to build first-rate schools.
Run, to build infrastructure, from transport corridors, railways and power transmission lines that will integrate the SADC region and boost economic growth and jobs.
Run, to boost its tourism and agriculture sectors to become yet again the breadbasket for the region.
Run, to unlock the wealth of minerals and metals locked in its vast mining areas.
Zimbabwe is too critical for the world to ignore. With its vast deposits of critical minerals, including lithium and platinum metals group, Zimbabwe is one of the leading countries that holds the future for global energy transitions.
In a world of geo-political competition and drive for securing vital strategic minerals and metals, we must look at Zimbabwe with new lenses. Not lenses of the past, but lenses of the new future. These new lenses that should inform and guide us toward a strategic approach, not a retributive approach.
Source: NewZwire