Zimbabwe FM seeks new loans from IMF, WB

Zimbabwe's finance minister said on Friday that he had asked the multi-national financial institutions including the International Monitoring Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to provide new credit lines to the country even before the old debts are cleared. Zimbabwe's debts to the IMF, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank totaled 10 billion U.S. dollars and the institutions had since early 2000s freezed any new loan to the country. Harare began this year an IMF staff-monitored program, a move if successful could pave the way for the Zimbabwean government to be re-qualified for new loans. Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said during his visit to Washington earlier this month for the IMF and World Bank annual meetings, he proposed a "one-size fits all" solution as the creditor. "Unless they give us new money, there will be no growth, there will be no capacity on our part to pay the arrears," Chinamasa told Xinhua. "We need new money, we need new investments into our country to boost capacity to pay them." "I ask them to look for innovative ways on how they can inject new money into our economy," said the minister, who acknowledged that the process could take time but the World Bank had said it would look into the possibilities. Chinamasa also said foreign investment is critical as the country badly needs capital and technology to revamp the economy. "Our infrastructure is collapsing, the industries are on the butts, not on their feet, and we have no power and no water in some areas," Chinamasa said, describing the challenging as "intimidating." He also identified four sectors, namely energy, water, mining, and manufacturing, as the prioritized sectors to attract investment. China led the bulk of foreign investments into the country. Last year, Chinese investment accounted for 72 percent of the 929 million U.S. dollars foreign direct investment projects approved by the Zimbabwe Investment Authority.