New Dawn waffling on debt restructuring – Mpombo

By RUTH YAMBAYAMBA

WE will be waffling in the darkness until President Hakainde Hichilema’s new dawn administration directly engages China on debt restructuring, former Minister of Defence, George Mpombo has said.

And Mr Mpombo says President Hichilema missed it when he lobbied United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres on debt restructuring during his recent visit to Qatar because the UN is a non-binding resolution intergovernmental organisation that will not help Zambia on debt.

Mr Mpombo said in an interview with Millennium TV that the Summit for Democracy to be co-hosted by the United States, Zambia and three other countries, was aimed at disadvantaging China due to the new dawn government’s inability to directly engage that country, which is Zambia’s single biggest creditor with around US$6 billion owed to Chinese financiers

On March 29, 2023, the Summit for Democracy will be co-hosted by five countries — the US, Costa Rica, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, and Zambia.

“The Summit for Democracy will not improve the debt restructuring process. The debt restructuring remains in a very awkward position because of the inability or the unwillingness of Zambia to engage China directly.

“We owe a lot of money to China; therefore, it is important that we directly confront or directly go to China and start discussing these things. You know Zambia has really missed it because even the recent trip to Qatar where the President went to lobby the United Nations, you don’t lobby the United Nations because the UN is not a binding resolution entity. You will recall that so many resolutions have been passed on Palestine and on Russia that are totally non-binding,” Mr Mpombo said.

He said it was a political and economic mirage for the new dawn Administration to think that they could achieve debt restructuring without directly engaging China.