PRESIDENT Mnangagwa is today expected to headline a High-Level Structured Dialogue Platform on Zimbabwe's national debt arrears meant to update all stakeholders on the progress made and to discuss a roadmap that has been made to contain the country's indebtedness.
The President is expected to address the gathering in Harare, which will be attended by Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the president of the African Development Bank Group and champion of the process, together with former Mozambican President, Joaquim Chissano, as the high-level facilitator.
Various stakeholders are also expected to attend, including Government representatives, creditors, development partners, international organisations, civil society organisations and the private sector, among others.
Today's meeting is coming at a time when Time Bank of Zimbabwe (Time Bank) has increased its syndicated loan proposal to the Government from US$35 billion to US$38 billion for purposes of paying compensation to several key groups of people, among them white former farm owners and financing Zimbabwe's sovereign debt resolution.
This is part of the bank's business repositioning strategy, which it believes will also improve Zimbabwe's credit risk rating and business environment.
Other key parties attending today's meeting are Zimbabwe's external creditors, development partners, civil society, international organisations and private sector representatives.
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This follows earlier discussions among the three sector working groups set up for the debt resolution process, which focused on economic growth and stability reforms, governance and land tenure reforms, compensation of white former commercial farmers and resolution of Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement (BIPPAs).
Some of the Government's stand-out compensation debt obligations include payment to foreign lenders (US$20,4 billion), payment for land improvements by indigenous Zimbabweans whose land was acquired by the Government without compensation before 1980 (US$10 billion) and payment for land improvements by white former commercial farmers (US$3,5 billion) whose land was acquired by Government for resettling the landless majority after 1980.
The liabilities are part of debts which Zimbabwe is seeking to expunge, for which it has appointed Dr Adesina and former Mozambican leader Chissano to help design a sustainable repayment process.
The country is in arrears for servicing its debt, with outstanding payments to multilateral development banks, including the African Development Bank, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank.
Compensations to the 10 groups, Time Bank said, were critical.
Notably, compensation of previous farm owners (PFOs) is provided for in terms of Section 295 (3) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and the Global Compensation Deed (GCD) agreed with the farmers in July 2020.
In terms of the GCD, the Government and the affected farmers had a second agreement under which the farmers could raise additional funds from donors to settle the compensations for land improvements without obligation to the Government.
Time Bank intends to take advantage of this provision to provide appropriate banking solutions to assist the previous farm owners to raise such funding for the compensation of US$3,2 billion for the land improvements, which the bank believes would help improve confidence in Zimbabwe's business environment.
The intervention follows the reopening of the bank on October 27, 2022, after 18 years of closure. The bank adopted a phased approach to the reopening, which has seen it offering limited banking services.
At today's meeting, three co-chairs of the sector working groups representing Government under the Structured Dialogue Platform are expected to present their progress reports.
During the forum, there will be a plenary discussion and a presentation on the roadmap and way forward for the Arrears Clearance and Debt Resolution Process.
Government under the Second Republic has strongly committed to implementing a transparent and collaborative Arrears Clearance and Debt Resolution Process to ensure the country's long-standing debt challenges can be resolved in the most sustainable manner.
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The forthcoming High-Level Forum follows a technical meeting of the co-chairs of the sector working groups of the Structured Dialogue Platform on the Arrears Clearance and Debt Resolution Process that took place in October.
The meeting highlighted the significant progress made by Government in implementing reforms underpinning the process and identified the next steps.
In December 2022, Government established a Structured Dialogue Platform with all its creditors and Development Partners to institutionalise dialogue on economic and governance reforms to underpin the Arrears Clearance and Debt Resolution Process.
Since assuming office in 2017, President Mnangagwa has assured development partners and creditors that his Government is committed to the implementation of key reforms critical to resolving the country's debts and arrears.
Government is on record as saying it was encouraged by progress and milestones achieved so far on reforms under the arrears clearance and debt resolution process.
