Sadc finance ministers to detail Zim recovery plan
Business Report/TZG
Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:24:00 +0000
FINANCE ministers of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) will meet within a week to forge a rescue plan for Zimbabwe, after talks in Cape Town between President Kgalema Motlanthe and Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday.
Motlanthe said that finance ministers including Trevor Manuel and his Zimbabwean counterpart, Tendai Biti, had been asked to "develop the detail" of how to deal with the myriad challenges facing the Zimbabwean economy.
Manuel, who attended the talks between Motlanthe and Tsvangirai in Cape Town, said: "There aren't any numbers on the table."
He told Business Report that the talks were based on "the very important principle of resolving issues", but this would be done on a multilateral basis.
"We have to work together," he said. "It is a process of identification and finding the appropriate measures. We should not put too much pressure on people; Tendai Biti has been finance minister for exactly one week. One can't expect him to have every answer."
Tsvangirai said interventions to get the country going again should focus on education, health and the provision of food.
He told a media briefing at Tuynhuys in South Africa that no figure had been applied to the financial injection required by the Zimbabwean economybut said $5 billion (R50.9 billion) could be needed to start the ball rolling.
- Business Report/TZG
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