* Zimbabwe infrastructure decaying
* Govt to leverage minerals as part of debt plan
(Adds comments on foreign debt)
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE, March 21 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe plans to float a $100
million bond to rebuild its dilapidated infrastructure as the
country struggles to attract foreign investment, the finance
minister said on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe’s infrastructure, such as its roads, railways, dams
and power plants, has been starved of finance due to a decade of
economic collapse, which eased somewhat with the formation of a
power-sharing government in 2009.
“Very soon we are going to issue a $100 million
infrastructure bond through our financial institutions,” Finance
Minister Tendai Biti told an investor conference in Harare.
He gave no further details, but said Zimbabwe was taking
steps to reduce its external debt, a factor which has blocked
funding for its infrastructure projects.
Biti said Zimbabwe’s debt, mostly owed to the Paris Club,
World Bank, African Development Bank and the International
Monetary Fund was set to reach $8 billion or 118 percent of the
country’s GDP by the end of 2012.
Biti said the unity government, formed by bitter rivals
President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai,
had agreed to seek debt cancellation and use of minerals to
clear the country’s arrears with international financiers.
Continued…
