LUSAKA, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government said Monday that the planned visit by International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva was a good signal that the country was on the right path in its economic transformation.
The IMF chief said last week that she would be traveling to Zambia in two weeks' time and hoped that the southern African nation would become the second nation after Chad to complete a debt treatment process under the Common Framework platform supported by the Group of 20 (G20).
She added that debt relief was critical for heavily indebted nations to avoid cuts in social services and other repercussions.
Zambian Minister of Finance and National Planning Situmbeko Musokotwane said in a press release that the visit of the IMF chief was a good sign and a strong sentiment.
The visit comes at a time when Zambia's international profile was rising because of the good economic transformation that the country has embarked on and the responsiveness of the policies through social sector interventions to some of the needs of the citizens, he noted.
The minister further welcomed the IMF chief's announcement that a new global sovereign debt roundtable of creditors and some borrower countries will meet for the first time on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers' meeting in India.
He affirmed Zambia's appreciation for the clarification that the new roundtable would not substitute the Common Framework for debt treatment, but complement it.
Last August, the IMF Board approved a 1.3-billion-U.S.-dollar loan program for Zambia under the Extended Credit Facility, a crucial step in the country's quest to restructure its debt.
In 2021, the southern African nation sought to restructure its debt under a G20 Common Debt Restructuring Framework.
This is the first time for an IMF chief to visit Zambia since 2011. ■