Kuwait reschedules Zimbabwe debt

via Kuwait reschedules Zimbabwe debt 22/11/2013 by NewZiana

THE Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) says it has rescheduled Zimbabwe’s debt and will also resume operations in Zimbabwe shortly, including providing project financing.

Zimbabwe owes the Fund an unspecified amount of money, and has defaulted on repayment because of economic difficulties.

Speaking Thursday after meeting President Robert Mugabe in Kuwait City, KFAED Director-General Abdulwahab Al-Bader said the Fund recognized the economic challenges Zimbabwe was facing, and had rescheduled the debt as a result.

“Because of the hardships and embargoes, and sanctions, Zimbabwe failed to repay some of our loans,” said Al-Bader, who did not have the figure of the debt at hand.

He said Zimbabwe would soon submit priority project proposals to the fund for consideration. He said the country had also requested grants to conduct technical studies on some important projects.

“We are going to look at the current development plan of Zimbabwe and select projects which fit into our financing,” he said, adding that the areas which the fund would consider assisting with funding included infrastructure, health and social welfare.

“We have assisted in the railways earlier and we do not know whether we will also be going back into that,” he said. “We will be resuming operations as soon as possible, possibly as early as next January,” he added.

The move by the KFAED comes soon after the summit of African and Arab countries in Kuwait on Tuesday and Wednesday which agreed to enhance co-operation between the two regions to accelerate development.