PRESS STATEMENT
ZAMBIA’S $6.3 BILLION DEBT RESTRUCTURING BREAKTHOUGH IS A GAME CHANGER – MDC
Lusaka – 23rd June, 2023
The Movement for Democratic Change MDC, an alliance partner of the UPND led government wishes to congratulate President Hakainde Hichilema for his involvement in pushing forward the debt restructuring deal with the country’s official creditors that has finally been approved.
We also wish to commend Finance and National Planning Minister, Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane, the Bank of Zambia, as well as all the economic players who were part of the team for getting us to this level.
This agreement between Zambia and its official creditors is a significant step and a game changer that signifies that the international community is backing Zambia’s interventions towards economic recovery.
However, we should not get complaisant as a country even as we celebrate this milestone achievement because now is when there is going to be a lot of hard-work into this deal.
With this debt restructuring deal, we now have a framework that outlines the approach that all other creditors to Zambia will use and this will be instrumental to bring private creditors who we owe an outstanding $6.8 billion to be part of this debt treatment.
We now need to develop and implement policies that ensure that the economy gets back on its growth trajectory. We wish to emphasize that infrastructure development must continue while all other sectors of the economy contribute to the country’s GDP.
We further need to re-establish and enhance our relationships with a number of our international partners so that we can create synergies and leverage support that will enable our country to move forward in development.
Issued by//
Ambassador Joyce Chembe Musenge
Acting Secretary General
Movement for Democratic Change MDC