via Chinamasa set for Washington – DailyNews Live by John Kachembere 4 APRIL 2014
Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa will next week travel to Washington, United States, to attend the International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings.
The Treasury chief — struggling to secure bailout packages and budgetary support — said he would use the platform to lure investors into investment-starved Zimbabwe. He acknowledged that foreign investors were critical for economic development.
“The idea is that we lure investors into this economy,” Chinamasa said at the Atlas Mara Co-Nvest Limited and ABC Holdings press conference, adding that “what we (Zimbabwe) need basically is a large volume of money being lent to the productive sectors such as agriculture, mining, industry, manufacturing and tourism.”
Last October, Chinamasa returned empty-handed from Washington after the IMF and the World Bank refused to advance further financial support to the country.
According to IMF, Zimbabwe’s external debt reached $12,5 billion in 2012 with nearly half of the obligations in arrears.
In June last year, the organisation re-engaged with the country for the first time in more than a decade, but ruled out new cash advances.
Instead, it recommended a Staff Monitoring Programme (SMP) for the country adding its successful implementation “would be an important stepping stone toward helping Zimbabwe re-engage with the international community.”
“We still owe them money, and because of that they have put us under the Staff Monitoring Programme and they will not be giving us fresh money or new concessionary loans until we complete that programme,” Chinamasa said following his October IMF visit.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe could for the second time miss the SMP targets due to deteriorating economic conditions in the country.
Under the programme, the country is required to enforce sound economic policies including improving diamond revenue transparency, reduce financial sector vulnerabilities and restructure the central bank, among other demands.
In January, IMF approved a six-month extension of the SMP to June to give the President Robert Mugabe-led administration time to deliver on outstanding commitments.
Chinamasa has said government is facing mounting economic challenges thereby affecting its ability to meet the Bretton Woods institution’s targets within the deadline.
“It’s clear at this stage, to everybody’s knowledge, that we have not been able to address some of the issues we discussed last year such as employment costs as a proportion of the budget,” he said.
“And I have told them (an IMF team recently in Zimbabwe) that with respect to employment costs we cannot address those in the short to medium term. They require a longer process,” Chinamasa said, adding that the issues could not be addressed overnight.
He said he was not willing to cut government expenditure through the retrenchment of civil servants.
“We are hoping to address employment costs in the long term through creating growth in the economy, increasing the revenue base and increasing the gross domestic product (GDP) so that employment costs can take their appropriate portion within a bigger cake.”
COMMENTS
Someone please tell him Beijing is in the other direction!That’s where he should go since the Dear Leader said we Look East
Prediction……..he will come back with completely empty hands……..lot of BS but empty hands
Patrick you are dreaming. You are a bad smell. Nobody worth knowing wants to know you. The best thing you can do if you want to bring investment back to Zimbabwe is resign along with you sick president and party. You are the problem.
What happened to the look east policy?
When you travel to the east & they ignore you, you just carry on going and eventually you reach the west!! Patrick enjoy the trip because that’s all you going to get. Hey maybe you can take the country’s ‘first shopper’ with you ?
Interesting choice of words. He wants to “lure” investors…into a deadly trap of investment under the regime he represents with it’s illiterate approach to economic development. I wonder if his lure will actually “attract” any reputable investors?
Well said Zambuka! Also what is Atlas Mara Convest – sounds like a con to me.
Money lent = money stolen by zanu. He won’t sniff a cent.
He will very soon not be able to pay the civil servants. There is very little money, it is getting less daily and they can’t print it. This is a problem comrade that you cannot fix. The soldiers are going to start squealing and then you will start squealing. They won’t accept the fictitious story of sanctions when it has become so very evident that zanu has stolen all the money.
Bunch of looters.
What do you say about this Apolitical, your finance minister is visiting the imperialists on his own accord. Is he going to sell out?
So what happened to the ‘Look East Policy’?? These Zanu PF thieves are the most hypocritical people on the planet. I thought they didnt want anything to do with the West as Britain and her allies were all ‘pale devils’?? I hope they capture this fool and put him in Guantanamo Bay for the rest of his cheating life. ChinaMHATA
Not only is he wasting his time , he is going to waste another couple of hundred thousand precious US$ taking his family and friends on a jaunt. Stay at home and save the money.
Imagine the embarrassment when he tries to buy a scotch in a NY bar with our dirty USA and the health department are called in to sanitise the joint.
“Strange fruit hanging from the tree”! Zimbabwe alongside its strange bedfellows notably North Korea and Cuba voted against the UN General Assembly’s overwhelming vote for a resolution submitted by Ukraine denouncing the referendum in Crimea that made the Black Sea peninsula an integral part of the Russian
Others who voted against where Zim’s strange bedfellows naturally Russia the perpetrator who mines Uranium in Zimbabwe (UN take heed), Armenia, Belarus, Bolivia,, Nicaragua, Sudan, Syria, and Venezuela.
The resolution “affirms commitment to the sovereignty, political independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.” I thought that this is ZanuPF mantra that has been forced down our through to for 33 yrs. II suppose only for Zimbabwe and not
Does Chinamasa think New York where UN is located is a different country from Washington where the World Bank is?
Obviously Mubengegwi’s Foreign Policy is not in the same country as Chinamasa’s Finance Ministry lol!!
Why is no-one talking about arresting this gonzo in Washington…..a murderer, racist and rapist!
Too right. Citizens arrest should do it!
God is watching all the tricks…
To get support you have to demonstrate credibility and worthiness. The Zim government demonstrates neither and so Chi will not get anything. The country will continue towards economic meltdown. Fasten your seat belt.
Charlie, man. For once I heard a little sense from you. But then you ,on another forum right here went back to being yourself. Sometimes you need to understand that you take people backwards when you do racist statements. Mugabe is a racist, I have no doubt about that. But you are an aggrieved racist.Your monkey statements would seem to suggest that. This is because racist normally refer to blacks as monkeys. I personally think that monkeys (the animals) are quite a democratic species. I remember a story about a conversation that the monkeys had. MONKEY A..Brother I heard some humans talking about us. MONKEY B..What did they say. MONKEY A they said they involved from us..that’s good is it not? MONKEY B..my friend have you seen a monkey stopping another monkey from taking an apple from the tree? Have you seen a monkey putting up a fence and saying this is my land? Have you seen a monkey leaving it’s children with another monkey whilst it goes out to enjoy it’s self? My friend I don’t know where these humans are from but they definatly did not evolve from us.
Sfine, it is about time God did something.
to moyokumusha, there is no god, at list for us black people. we were doomed the day this white people came to africa murdered our parents and child and after that gave us the bible to read and told us thats the way to heaven… we (black people) being as stupid as we are had no problem accepting this BS.. look were are now… still hold that stupid book.
Lord have mercy on you.
He will come back empty handed. If it were not him then there will be some hope maybe!