Ken Ofori-Atta
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has hinted that a planned high-level government delegation to China has been postponed to late March 2023.
This is owing to the upcoming National People’s Congress of China meeting scheduled for early March.
However, the Finance Minister said bilateral talks will continue ahead of this important mission.
He said negotiations with China are important because they hold the majority of the external bonds.
“The big elephant in the room is China, we will be visiting China by the end of the week to really discuss how they come into the envelope as quickly as possible. So we are looking at that support from them. China represents about a third of the $5.7 billion loan and so it is important that we engage them,” Mr. Ofori-Atta said during a radio interview.
The government is seeking under the G20 Common Framework for Debt Treatment to get debt forgiveness from some bilateral and multilateral partners.
Key among them is China, whom Ghana is indebted to the tune of over $1.7 billion.
This is compared with $1.9 billion to other Paris Club members.
In January 2023, IMF announced it was working towards a debt cancellation programme for Ghana and other countries amid a global economic recession scare this year.
The other countries are Ethiopia, Zambia, Chad, Lebanon, Surinam, and Sri Lanka.
IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, said the move, was to avert any “bad surprise” on the global economy, out of which 25 percent had its trade in emerging markets territories.
“We’re working hard to press for debt resolution for these countries, and we’ve engaged with the traditional creditors, the Paris Club, the non-traditional creditors, China, India, and Saudi Arabia. Our call is very simple: Urgently we have to act,” she said in an interview.