Copper-rich Zambia, the primary African nation to default on its debt through the Covid pandemic, is seeking to seal a China-backed deal to restructure its debt throughout a two-day world finance summit Paris this week.
Listed here are 5 issues to know in regards to the southern African nation of 19.6 million inhabitants, which is a key goal of China’s huge Africa funding drive.
Crippled by debt
In 2020, Zambia turned the primary nation in Africa to default on its overseas debt because the begin of the Covid-19 pandemic. Round a 3rd of its debt was owed to China.
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Zambia was already battling its debt pile earlier than Covid hit, hammering the costs of the commodities that prop up the economic system.
Acquiring higher reimbursement phrases on its exterior debt, which stood at 18.6 billion on the finish of 2022, is vital to unblocking an IMF rescue plan for the nation.
Copper is king
Zambia is the second-biggest producer of copper in Africa after the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the seventh producer on the earth.
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However a pointy decline in copper costs, weaker exports to China and a clampdown on overseas affect within the mining sector sapped investor confidence within the sector.
Chinese language management
China is Zambia’s prime overseas investor, taking enormous stakes within the mining sector and launching an enormous infrastructure drive, together with new airports, roads, factories, stadiums and power initiatives.
The imbalance within the relationship — and claims by Zambian employees of exploitation — have precipitated resentment in direction of Chinese language bosses to periodically flare.
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Three Chinese language textile manufacturing facility bosses had been brutally murdered by aggrieved staff in 2020 and in 2012 a Chinese language supervisor was killed throughout a riot over wages at a coal mine.
Victoria Falls
Zambia’s foremost vacationer attraction is the spectacular Victoria Falls, named Mosi-oa-Tunya (the smoke that thunders) by the native individuals earlier than being named by Scottish explorer David Livingstone after Britain’s queen in 1855.
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Situated on the Zambezi River, the falls straddle the between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and the 2 international locations share the move of vacationers.
‘African Gandhi’
Kenneth Kaunda, who died in June 2021 on the age of 97 was Zambia’s founding father, taking energy in 1964 after main the wrestle for independence from Britain.
Nicknamed the “African Gandhi” for his non-violent activism, he dominated for 27 years below a single-party system earlier than leaving energy peacefully.
His trademark image was a white handkerchief which he mentioned he carried as a peace signal.
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The present President Hakainde Hichilema is a enterprise tycoon who emphasizes his humble beginnings as a “cattle boy”. He ran for president six occasions earlier than successful the job.
He has repealed the dying sentence and a colonial-era regulation making it a criminal offense to defame the president.
© Agence France-Presse
