/ 30 June 2009

Zim secures $950m credit from China

Zimbabwe has secured $950-million in credit lines from China to help rebuild the country’s economy, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe has appealed to the world for a ”financial stimulus package” for its devastated economy, saying lack of foreign support put a recovery plan drawn up by the unity government in peril.

The Southern African country says it needs $10-billion to rebuild dilapidated infrastructure and ease a 90% unemployment rate.

”The government, through the minister of finance, secured credit lines of almost $950-million from China,” Tsvangirai said in a news conference.

Tsvangirai, who shares power with President Robert Mugabe, said a three-week tour he conducted of the United States and Europe had yielded pledges totalling more than $500-million.

”The amount of assistance that was raised on my visit to Europe and the United States does not reflect the enormous support we will be able to utilise if we are to fulfil all our political obligations,” he said.

He said other promises of aid would be fulfilled only when Zimbabwe created a democracy and improved human rights after what critics say is Mugabe’s repressive rule.

”If we want outside assistance, we must first prove that we are able to fulfil the obligations we have undertaken within the agreement that was brokered by the Southern African Development Community,” Tsvangirai said.

”Actions speak louder than words, and while I was away there were instances of peaceful protesters being beaten by our police, innocent individuals arrested on trumped-up charges and continued vilification of the Movement for Democratic Change by the state media.” — Reuters