Zambia pledges to improve absorption of donor resources

LUSAKA, March 21 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government on Wednesday said it was doing everything possible to improve the absorption capacity of available donor resources in 2018.

Minister of Finance Margaret Mwanakatwe, who was responding to concerns from the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) on the slow process of completion of donor-funded project, said her ministry was working on putting in place measures to ensure that the absorption capacity of available donor resources in 2018 was increased to rate above 70 percent.

This was when she held a meeting with officials from the World Bank and the AfDB, according to a statement released by her ministry.

She said her ministry will come up with an execution plan to ensure that tangible progress was registered in implementation donor-supported projects.

She further assured that the government was addressing the "red lights" on fiscal affairs by ensuring that the public financial management reforms, the medium-term debt strategy and the economic stabilization and growth program were implemented diligently.

"We are on top of things currently we are re-validating our debt data as we move to a new debt management system," she said.

Earlier, World Bank Country Manager Ina Ruthenberg said there were a lot of projects on which the bank and the Zambian government could strengthen collaboration but that the absorption and implementation capacity needed to be resolved.

"We are sitting on a lot of money which needs to be disbursed once absorption and implementation capacity issues are resolved," she said.

AfDB Country Manager Mary Munyau said the bank has developed a portfolio tracking system to ensure that substantial improvement in program implementation was registered within scheduled project time-frames.

She further said the bank will now focus on renaissance of export-oriented private sector development in Zambia. Enditem