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Zimbabwe Seal Nine Infrastructure Funding Deals With China

Zimbabwe Seal Nine Infrastructure Funding Deals With China

Written By Kitsepile Nyathi | From Daily Nation

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s delegation in China has inked nine agreements that will see the Asian economic giant bankrolling infrastructure projects in an effort to turn the fortunes of the struggling African country.

President Mugabe began his five-day official visit to China on Monday where he was hailed as a renowned African leader and “old friend” by China’s President Xi Jinping.

Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa did not reveal the monetary value of the agreements but said funding frameworks had been agreed to specific projects.

He said the projects were aligned to a new economic blue print— the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation — which authorities say require $10 billion to implement.

Mr Chinamasa said the security for the loans would be based on income from the projects and not on Zimbabwe’s mineral resources.

“No country sets aside a lump-sum payment for no specific projects,” he said. “Projects must demonstrate their ability to pay for themselves.

“You will not come to China to ask for money to invest in a project that won’t pay for itself. That would make no economic sense.

“We have signed agreements which provide securitisation framework under which projects in infrastructural and productive sectors can be funded.”

Zimbabwe has been unable to secure loans from multilateral lenders such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank because of its failure to repay.

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