{"id":37195,"date":"2022-12-30T22:19:35","date_gmt":"2022-12-30T22:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/?p=37195"},"modified":"2022-12-30T12:22:41","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T12:22:41","slug":"the-issue-is-not-china-but-zambias-choices-hh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-issue-is-not-china-but-zambias-choices-hh","title":{"rendered":"The issue is not China but Zambia\u2019s choices \u2013 HH"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema has said that the issue is not China but Zambia\u2019s choices on what they want financing for. Mr Hichilema also said that fighting corruption is inevitable stressing that \u201cquite unpopular to colleagues that were doing business, tenderpreneurs. Amongst those tenderpreneurs, some were supplying air meaning squarely nothing and billed huge quantities of money. So we decided to audit suspicious domestic debt and only pay those that we thought were clean straight.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was responding to a question when he addressed the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington, DC on how he felt on allegations that non-disclosure agreements that often accompanied Chinese financing have made transparency difficult sometimes, a fact underscored by his administration after assuming office that Zambia\u2019s actual debt to China had been underestimated by about 50 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and fore most it is important to acknowledge that China is the single largest creditor in that category of foreign creditors to Zambia and with that recognition it\u2019s important to understand how the debt was acquired. By and large, it was infrastructure development related. Does Zambia need infrastructure development? Yes. Absolutely yes. The issue was not mainly for China but for us the borrowers to structure, to mix the debt that we got…\u201d he explained. \u201cThe question is which infrastructure? It should not have been a choice for China. It should have been our choice as Zambia, our priorities. Had we got our priorities right, we would have first struck a balance on how to utilise the full ticket, value. Whatever you want to call it. Mainly it went into roads but for us now, in our quest to develop infrastructure, roads are important. Which roads? Which other infrastructure areas? Energy. Energy would have been extremely important. Largely green energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Hichilema said there were lots of opportunities to expand hydro energy given the country\u2019s hydrological conditions. \u201cIf it was us in government we would have put a large portion of that in electricity for our domestic needs, growth projection needs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

President Hichilema said application of the Chinese debt should have gone in the power sector area where the country would have cushioned the deficit in southern and East Africa interconnector and made money. He said such a move would not have created a debt crisis.<\/p>\n

The President said for roads his government would use the Public-Private-Partnership model which was really off balance sheet. \u201cWe are very delighted to say that China understands certainly from our conversations, the decisions we had and from the decisions, one of them is being done by China itself and other Zambians on a public-private-partnership basis. Another thing is it recognises the difficulties we are in. Our party in government has a way of doing things,\u201d he said. \u201cEven if we were not in a debt crisis we would have gone for this model together with others that are less stressful. Now we are saying to China, we are saying to the US, we are saying to Europe, we are saying Japan and anyone else on our continent as Africa, we can work together in many other areas that will help us achieve our agenda as a government.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his target was to grow economy by three per cent this year. \u201cAlthough growth outlook will be difficult this year we expecting to grow as a country after one year in office to close to three per cent from -2.8 in an environment where inflation in other countries is in a runaway position, where interests are much higher and public expenditure is a problem. We are dealing with those issues and I think China understands. China also like any other lender is also influenced by the borrower government, what it wants to do and makes its case. It is the same for any other lender,\u201d President Hichilema said. \u201cWe need to be clear of what we want for our own economies.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said economic success was positively related to laws. President Hichilema said the fight against corruption was not a choice for a decent government like his.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s invertible to do that. We can\u2019t just talk about it,\u201d he said. \u201cIn Zambia and in many other countries we have a problem of start\u2013stop processes…\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

President Hichilema said one of the issues to address was why Africa was not represented in global governance such as on the UN Security Council and the G20. He said his aim in 2023 would be to unlock rigidities in the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to reign in on the debt position. First domestic debt. We had to come down on public service extravagance, which was excessive and we are working hard to bring that under control. Quite unpopular to colleagues that were doing business, tenderpreneurs,\u201d he said. \u201cAmongst those tenderpreneurs some were supplying air meaning squarely nothing and billed huge quantities of money. So we decided to audit suspicious domestic debt and only pay those that we thought were clean straight. Now with the macro stability which I have explained, we have been in office 15 months, our duty now is to turn on the growth side. To focus on what Zambians elected us in office for, to grow the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema has said that the issue is not China but Zambia\u2019s choices on what they want financing for. Mr Hichilema also said that fighting corruption is inevitable stressing that \u201cquite unpopular to colleagues that were doing business, tenderpreneurs. Amongst those tenderpreneurs, some were supplying air meaning squarely nothing and billed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":37194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,248],"tags":[234,235,233],"class_list":["post-37195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-to-homepage","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zambia","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"\nThe issue is not China but Zambia\u2019s choices \u2013 HH - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema has said that the issue is not China but Zambia\u2019s choices on what they want financing for. ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-issue-is-not-china-but-zambias-choices-hh\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The issue is not China but Zambia\u2019s choices \u2013 HH\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema has said that the issue is not China but Zambia\u2019s choices on what they want financing for. ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-issue-is-not-china-but-zambias-choices-hh\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-30T22:19:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1672389399.05.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"704\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-issue-is-not-china-but-zambias-choices-hh#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-issue-is-not-china-but-zambias-choices-hh\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"The issue is not China but Zambia\u2019s choices \u2013 HH\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-30T22:19:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-issue-is-not-china-but-zambias-choices-hh\"},\"wordCount\":894,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-issue-is-not-china-but-zambias-choices-hh#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1672389399.05.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Zambia\",\"Zambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-issue-is-not-china-but-zambias-choices-hh#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-issue-is-not-china-but-zambias-choices-hh\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/the-issue-is-not-china-but-zambias-choices-hh\",\"name\":\"The issue is not China but Zambia\u2019s choices \u2013 HH - 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