Zimbabwean president meets IMF, World Bank officials

HARARE, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday held talks with officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank on possible support from the two Bretton Woods institutions.

The meeting came against the background of Zimbabwe's request for an IMF Staff Monitored Program, as part of an arrears clearance and debt resolution roadmap that it agreed with multilateral and bilateral creditors early this year.

The roadmap, if successfully implemented, is expected to help Zimbabwe clear its debt to bilateral and multilateral creditors and unlock new funding from global financiers.

"On our part, we expressed our readiness to support Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean government has requested for some Staff Monitored Program through which we can provide support to the government in terms of policy advice, technical assistance and we want to initiate that as soon as the government is ready," Abebe Aemro Selaisse, the IMF director responsible for African department, was quoted as saying by state news agency New Ziana.

Both the IMF and the World Bank suspended aid to Zimbabwe over two decades ago as part of Western sanctions on the country over its land reform program under which the government compulsorily took excess farmland from white farmers to resettle landless blacks.

The meeting was also attended by World Bank Zimbabwe country director Nathan Belete and Zimbabwe's Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Mthuli Ncube.