via Zim gets $23mln Chinese grant, eyes “comprehensive” rescue package | The Source February 11, 2014
Zimbabwe announced a $23 million rural development grant from China on Tuesday and suggested the Asian economic powerhouse was considering a “comprehensive” financial rescue package for the troubled southern African country.
Zimbabwe cannot access funds from multilateral finance institutions and its traditional Western funders due to arrears and a breakdown in relations at the turn of the century, but requires about $27 billion to repair its decaying infrastructure and revive its ailing economy, which shrank by as much as 50 percent between 2000 and 2008.
Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa told journalists that the government had secured the funding commitment after his visit to China last month, adding that the package, whose details he did not provide, was likely to be concluded within three months.
“During the visit we agreed that while the government of the People’s Republic of China and the government of Zimbabwe are working towards the conclusion of a comprehensive financial package and committed ourselves to finalising the matter within the next three months, the Chinese Embassy in Harare will meanwhile remain at our disposal for other assistance programmes,” Chinamasa said at a signing ceremony at his Harare offices.
“The $23.3 million grant we are signing today is one such assistance that has been availed to us.”
The Chinese rescue package is expected to fund government’s five-year economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-economic Transformation (ZimAsset) which requires at least $27 billion to implement.
The $23 million grant will go towards various projects and programmes, which include construction and equipping of schools and hospitals, agriculture projects, borehole drilling and the supply of mobile solar units in rural areas.
“This grant will ensure that the newly resettled communities living on land acquired under the land reform programme have access to health facilities in their vicinity,” Chinamasa said.
The economy has considerably slowed down since 2013 and has stuttered since President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party assumed sole charge after winning the July 31 elections, ending a unity government with the opposition, which helped stabilize the economy since 2009.
The economy is seen growing by about 4.2 percent this year, according to the World Bank, slower than the government’s 6.2 percent projection due to a slowdown in key sectors of the economy. The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries says industrial capacity utilisation is likely to drop lower than the 39 percent recorded last year.
But Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe, Lin Lin speaking at the signing ceremony, expressed optimism that Zimbabwe would recover, buoyed by the strong relations between the two countries.
“We are also sure that economic and social recovery of Zimbabwe will be robust and sustainable,” said Lin.
He did not mention the rescue package.
COMMENTS
Divide $23M BY THE NUMBER OF THIEVES IN ZPF. Too little I can hear them wailing.
Mind you they have large stomachs to feed let alone those of their many many small houses!
Hey Lucy I was gonna say that!!
Spot on
I have lived and worked with these people, nothing is for free!!! and when you cant pay then they take what they want. If the soap box queen would like to think that the British were hard colonizers belive me the Chinese will make them pale in comparison. They stay in the shadows they let the western countries make all the noise and in doing so making themselves targets for the derision by the likes of zimbabwe Politics and the chinese burrow deeper into their hoast country, like a disease or parasite, unfortunatly this tick is bigger and stronger than its host, in fact it is the biggest and strongest tick around!!!
So Mugabe needs $27 Billion, and they only got $23 Million? How is getting less then 1% of what is needed, in any way a success? Chinamasa says that more is on the way, but the Chinese ambassador is mum. I think Chinamasa is trying to milk this tiny grant to divert people from noticing how much of a failure he and ZANU-PF are.
Expat…….you are dead on the money !!!!
Lobhengula was cheated n he was unable to read but chinamasa who has a doctorate has just sold our country wth eyes open in broad daylight ,all for what ?as expat said we all know the chinese will take back their money x100 n leave the country bleeding.but what does he care he has millions stashed away for himself
the Zimbabwe I know…
no school, hospital our anything will be built.
the money is already decided among the thieves while we gullible Zimbabweans are busy debating.
that’s all we are good at.
speculation
The Chinese do not ‘rescue’ anybody, they only come to take what they want.
23 mill? can not even pay civil servants salaries.
hear hear brother…selling the family silver..
Expat hit the nail on the head. Bob takes his que que off the top, then on down the line. Its like “trickle down economics”, but none of it ever trickles down to the people that really need help. But that’s not the problem, only a symptom.
If money could fix Zimbabwe, it would have been fixed more than 20 years and over 100 billion dollars ago.
PART of the problem, isn’t the crown, but does lie directly at the feet of the one wearing it. With that said, Britain and the crown aren’t the solution. When two elephants fight, its the grass that suffers and the grass between the river of crocodiles and the Zambezi has suffered long enough.
Having lived the life of “die groot wyt aap” I’ve seen war crimes, crimes against humanity, and atrocities from one horizon to the next at 7,000 ft from a bush plane and it only gets worse on the ground “up close and personal”. Not just in Zim but from the horn to the cape.
Governments can only make treaties, only men can make peace.
I am die groot wyt aap and I have spoken
The Chinese plan for Zimbabwe is one giant Soya Bean Farm. You have been warned.
No surprise, Africa is now South China. Our so called leaders have sold us to the devil so they can enrich they foreign bank accounts & we all know the money will never get to where it is supposed to go. What hope is there?
Chinanamasa has a doctorate? In what? Have you ever listened to the guy speaking? Doctorate in Chinese maybe.
We have heard this before. So many so-called agreements; so many projects and just too much hot air. Nothing on the ground materialising – nothing.
SUFFER THE GUKURAHUNDIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are Africa’s so called leaders blind? The Chinese are the single biggest threat Africa has ever faced. They are behind the theft of our hardwoods, rhino poaching, the demise of our elephants, the demise of our rivers and in fact every single atrocity that Africa’s flora and fauna is faced with. Their foul fingerprints are all over it. Parasites is what they are and they helped many of these countries attain independence because they knew that stinking corrupt politicians would sell them Africa and how fast it is happening must even amaze this yellow peril.
chinobhururuka chinomhara LORD help us tinosvika kupi enough is enough let the fires decision be the final ndikunamata moto wedenga kuti upise makororo ose mu government
The Rhodesians, under heavy international sanction, needed no help or bail-out.
23 thugs will each get a million or 11 of them will take 2million each
this is the job of parliament to uncover all the rot in government and make amends. where is the parliament.