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REPORTS that the International Monetary Fund mission to Zimbabwe is satisfied with the pace of economic reforms being carried out by the country are encouraging and we are confident that Zimbabwe will soon access new lines of credit from the Bretton Woods institutions. Speaking at a press briefing on Zimbabwe’s preparedness to host the African Capacity Building Foundation 25th anniversary in the first week of May in Harare, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Patrick Chinamasa, told reporters at the weekend that Zimbabwe had met most of the targets set by the IMF under a 15-month Staff Monitored Programme. “The IMF mission team was in the country in February to March to assess whether we had met our targets – structural and quantitative – for end of December as well as to conduct Article IV consultations,” said Chinamasa.

“They came and did those assessments and consultations. Their report is very positive that we met our targets and that we are on course in terms of improving our macro-economic management,” he said. “That is what is going to attract investors into the country, that we are sound managers of our economy. They gave us a clean bill of health with respect to targets that we had set for ourselves to meet at the end of December.” Chinamasa said the country had gone beyond the IMF mission’s expectations, particularly on activities outside its Staff Monitored Programme.

These include evaluation for compensation of farms that the government compulsorily acquired from white farmers under the land reform programme and remapping of land ahead of the issuance of 99-year leases with provisions for collateral. “As I have always hammered day in and day out, that is, any reforms we carry out are not for anybody, they are not to please anybody. These are for the interests of our country in order to be good, sound managers,” said Chinamasa.

“The IMF board is going to sit on the 2nd of May to receive the report of the mission, which is positive. It’s just to receive and not to review or anything else. It’s just to receive the report on the targets and Article IV consultations,” he said. “We cannot envisage a situation where the board will query the mission with respect to their report. So we are quite optimistic that the report will be received well by the board,” said Chinamasa.

He said thereafter, the government would start operationalising its debt clearance strategy. Zimbabwe owes the African Development Bank about $600 million, the World Bank over $1 billion and the International Monetary Fund about $120 million. Chinamasa said they expected the three creditors to consider Zimbabwe’s debt clearance strategy by November this year. “Also, between now and then, we are going to work feverishly to come up with a new financing programme on the basis of which we hope, if we clear our arrears in tandem, as reciprocation, we should get new financing to support those sectors of our economy which we think, if supported, can have a transformative impact on our economic recovery,” Chinamasa said.

“Primarily, we are looking at agriculture. We are also looking at private sector growth. We are now going to give impetus to parastatal reform and to build capacity for all that is done by officials from here (Ministry of Finance), and that capacity was built through the assistance of ACBF,” he said. He said Treasury and the central bank were also developing a new country financing programme with the assistance of the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

“We need to restore our economy to a level where it can pay its debts. Currently we are not paying. This country financing programme is to be able to finance those sectors in order for them to grow and build the country’s capacity to pay its debts both past and current,” said Chinamasa.

We commend Chinamasa, his team at Treasury and other economic ministries for the sterling work they are doing to get the country’s economy back on track. We call on the IMF and other multilateral institutions to continue working with Zimbabwe on its debt clearance strategy which hopefully will lead to new lines of credit to finance critical sectors of the economy. President Robert Mugabe recently clarified the confusion over the interpretation of the Indigenisation law which had undermined business confidence in the country.

We appeal to foreign investors to come to Zimbabwe as the country is primed for an economic resurgence anchored on the government’s 10-point plan and economic blueprint — Zim-Asset. Data released by the government shows that the economy is transforming for the better with a number of companies that had hit capacity utilisation of one percent bouncing back to greater production.

In recent months, new manufacturing plants have been opened in different parts of the country, creating hundreds of jobs. On its part, the government has lined up several production stimulating strategies like curtailing imports and funding key companies.