Zimbabwe to receive almost a billion dollars in credit from China

By Tichaona Sibanda
30 June 2009

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai announced on Tuesday that the government had managed to secure US$950 million in credit lines from China, to help rebuild the country. Zimbabwe needs an estimated $8-$10 billion to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure and to ease the 90 percent unemployment rate.

Briefing journalists and diplomats in Harare, Tsvangirai said during his recent tour to Europe and the United States he also managed to raise over $US500 million, which will go towards the provision of basic services such as health and education.

The Prime Minister said the amount of assistance that was raised on his visit does not reflect the enormous support the government will be able to utilise, if they manage to fulfil all political obligations.

‘In every country, each leader I met expressed reservations about the delays in the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement. They asked, why, after almost five months, had fundamental obligations undertaken by the respective political parties not been implemented,’ Tsvangirai said.

He added; ‘In our drive to rebuild Zimbabwe, we are not limited to a ‘look west’ or ‘look east’ policy, but rather we are committed to engaging our friends in all parts of the globe.’

Leaders in Europe and the United States have raised concerns about the success of the new, transitional political dispensation, as the unity government has clearly not been fully constituted due to the outstanding issues.

‘These issues are not foreign benchmarks imposed from outside Zimbabwe, but are our own conditions that we committed ourselves to meeting when we signed the GPA. As such, the concerns of the international community are legitimate and the three political parties as the signatories to the GPA, and particularly the leaders of those parties, must take responsibility for the failure to implement fully the obligations we have signed up to,’ the Prime Minister added.

Economist Luke Zunga told us the reason why China has been able to avail this huge amount of money was because they have never been concerned about human rights issues in the country, unlike other western countries.

‘Whether Zimbabwe is a rogue state or not, that’s not an issue with the Chinese because they’ve always supported ZANU PF.’ Zunga said.