FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron has assured that he will work with all of Zambia’s creditors to ensure that the debt restructuring exercise is concluded by June this year.
President Macron made the assurance when he held talks with President Hakainde Hichilema where they, among other issues, discussed Zambia’s debt restructuring programme.
France and China co-chairs the Creditor’s Committee for Zambia and they had both committed to ensure that the debt restructuring exercise was successful for the country to access the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout package.
“We are happy with President Macron’s commitment that Zambia’s debt restructuring programme should conclusively be dealt with, before the June summit for a New Global financial pact,” President Hichilema said on his facebook page yesterday after the meeting.
He reiterated that France would work together with all Creditors to ensure that the debt restructuring was done.
Mr Hichilema said he emphasised the importance of closing debt talks and asked France to use its role to leverage the Paris Club and the G20 Creditor Committee to ensure the speedy resolution of the debt restructuring.
“We called on both France and China to jointly tackle the debt restructuring programme with the utmost speed,” he said.
Mr Hichilema said his delegation also took the opportunity to woo French investment to Zambia and strengthening of bilateral cooperation in areas of infrastructure, defence, technology biodiversity, tourism and environment.
He said he also had an interview with the Agence France Presses (AFP) and discussed a wide range of issues from the debt restructuring programme to Zambia being an attractive destination for investment.
France remained key to the debt restructuring programme as it sat on the Paris Club of Creditors and the G20 which had been discussing Zambia’s debt situation under the Common Debt Treatment Framework.
President Hichilema said the Government remained committed to resolve the matter and would not stop at anything to find a solution.
Mr Hichilema and his delegation left Paris and headed back to London for more engagements
