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Germany happy with Zim’s arrears clearance plan

Business
GERMANY ambassador to Zimbabwe Ullrich Klockner has said relations between two countries have improved against the backdrop of dialogue on rule of law,

GERMANY ambassador to Zimbabwe Ullrich Klockner has said relations between two countries have improved against the backdrop of dialogue on rule of law, human rights issues and corruption in the last two years.

BY BUSINESS REPORTER

Speaking at the Zimbabwe-Germany roundtable on Wednesday, Klockner said his country was happy with Zimbabwe’s arrears clearance programme.

John Mangudya
John Mangudya

“I am very encouraged by the latest development here in Zimbabwe by the trip of the Governor of the Reserve Bank (John Mangudya), who went to Germany, Paris (France), Rome (Italy) and Brussels (Belgium) to present not only a plan to clear arrears of Zimbabwe’s debt, which at the moment block coming of money from financial institution and from donors, but also to present a broad-based business economic plan,” he said.

He said the arrears clearance plan was a “very good” business economic reform programme and Germany was ready to work with Zimbabwe again.

“We will be able to get the Zimbabwean economy back on track, thereby creating opportunities for companies from Europe, including Germany,” he said.

The government, through Treasury, has crafted a plan with preferred creditors to clear $1,8 billion arrears within six months, in a move that will help the country revive its relationship with international financial institutions.

The country’s debt in total is close to $9 billion.

Bankers’ Association of Zimbabwe president Sam Malaba said in a statement plans to clear the arrears provided the country with an opportunity to address the challenge of external payment arrears that have prevented the investment-starved nation from accessing both balance-of-payments support and medium to long-term financing required by the economy.

“Going forward, beyond clearing the arrears to the multilateral financial institutions of $1,825 billion, much work still lies ahead, including re-engagement with the Paris Club for the bilateral debt negotiations and the London Club for commercial debt resolution,” he said.