US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in Zambia on the second leg of her African tour, a stop meant to promote US investment and ties while in a capital city visibly dominated by Chinese dollars.
Visitors to Lusaka arriving at the renovated Kenneth Kaunda International Airport see a facility expanded in 2015 with Chinese funding. A drive into the city passes billboards and newly built firms with Chinese signs, further evidence of Beijing’s influence and growing competition with the US.
But the growth the country has experienced has been accompanied by a heavier debt burden. Zambia became the first pandemic-era sovereign from Africa to default when it missed a $42.5 million bond payment in November 2020. Negotiations on how to deal with the debt burden have been ongoing. .
How Zambia’s debt with the Chinese is renegotiated will provide a test case for how lenient China will be to other overextended nations facing debt problems.
Debt will be a topic of conversation on Monday when Yellen meets with Zambia’s president and finance minister to pressure the Chinese to continue negotiations. She will also tour pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities that benefit from US investment to showcase what she sees as a model of success.
“Many African countries are now plagued by accumulated and unsustainable debt. And that is undeniably a problem. And a lot of it is related to Chinese investments in Africa,” Yellen said Saturday in an interview with The Associated Press in Senegal, the first leg of her African trip.
[Con información de The Associated Press]
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