Chissano flies in for debt indaba

Farirai Machivenyika, Harare Bureau
Former Mozambican President Joachim Chissano arrived in Zimbabwe yesterday ahead of the second structured dialogue platform meeting between Government, creditors and development partners to discuss economic and governance reforms to anchor the arrears clearance and debt resolution process that will be held on Thursday.

Former President Chissano was met by Finance and Economic Development Deputy Minister Clemence Chiduwa at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.

He will co-chair the meeting with African Development Bank president Dr Akinwumi Adesina.
President Mnangagwa last year appointed former President Chissano as the high-level facilitator of the arrears clearance and debt resolution process, while Dr Adesina was appointed champion of the process.

Zimbabwe owes US$14 billion to multilateral financial institutions, bilateral partners, and other creditors.

Speaking to journalists on his arrival, former President Chissano said: “I have come here on the invitation of both President Mnangagwa and AfDB president Adesina. We will be launching the second meeting to deal with the arrears and debt of Zimbabwe.

“I have been asked to be the facilitator of this discussion between Zimbabwe and key stakeholders so I am here for that.”

Former President Chissano said preparations for the meeting will start today, with preliminary engagements with stakeholders.

Deputy Minister Chiduwa expressed the country’s gratitude for the role being played by the former Mozambican leader.

“As a way forward in terms of what we have done so far, in December (last year) we had our first meeting and that meeting focused on how best we can go forward,” Deputy Minister Chiduwa said.

The inaugural structured dialogue platform meeting agreed on three pillars for implementation, namely economic reforms and stability, governance reforms and land tenure and compensation of white former commercial farmers, including the resolution of bilateral investment protection and promotion agreements.

“This then led to two areas, those areas that we are referring to as reform areas,” said Deputy Minister Chiduwa.

“We have the reform area on economics and the governance area. So, having met with our creditors and the development, we managed to come up with a reform matrix and that is what we are going to discuss now on Thursday.”