APA-Lusaka (Zambia) President Hakainde Hichilema is optimistic of a breakthrough in Zambia’s talks with international creditors over the restructuring of the country’s debt on the sidelines of the Paris summit review the global financial system that kicked off on Thursday.
According to reports monitored here, Hichilema told journalists in the Rwandan capital Kigali that he was confident of clinching a long-awaited debt restructuring deal with official creditors by the weekend.
Hichilema is attending the two-day Summit for a New Global Financing Pact that kicked off on Thursday in Paris.
He hinted that a deal could be announced on the sidelines of the Paris summit, together with French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
“It was agreed that the three of us must stand side-to-side in the next two days. You can interpret what that means,” he told the journalists.
China and France have co-chaired Zambia’s official creditor committee.
This is the second in as many months that Hichilema has travelled to Paris in search for a favourable debt restructuring programme.
France has been a key player in Zambia’s debt restructuring programme as it sits on the Paris Club of Creditors and the G20, which have been discussing Zambia’s debt situation under its Common Debt Treatment Framework.
Hichilema inherited a huge external debt burden when he took office in August 2021.
The southern African nation’s external debt topped US$17 billion at the end of 2021, of which one-third was owed to China, according to Zambian government data.
Zambia defaulted on its overseas debt in 2020 and is working on a restructuring with bilateral creditors and private bondholders, but talks have dragged amid a lack of consensus on how to provide debt relief.
“The framework we will agree — hopefully we should agree — in the next few days then can be rolled out to assist other countries,” Hichilema said.
France is hosting more than 300 high-level participants, including heads of state and government, international organisations and representatives of civil society and the private sector on 22 and 23 June.
The aim of the summit is to lay the groundwork for a renewed financial system suited to the common challenges of the 21st century, such as fighting inequalities and climate change and protecting biodiversity.
JN/APA