WESTERN DONORS STILL BACKING ZAMBIA, SAYS MINISTER
Finance Minister Gibson Chigaga said all
of Zambia's traditional financial backers apart from Britain
had pledged continued backing for the country's new go-it-alone
economic program announced last month.
    Chigaga told Reuters in an interview it was not true that
Western states had threatened to withold financial aid
following Zambia's abandonement of a tough IMF-inspired program
that included the auctioning of the local kwacha.
    "It is only Britain which has openly come out to say it
would withhold funds intended for the auction system of foreign
exchange," Chigaga said.
    "All the other countries have said their relationship with
us cannot be affected by the abandonment of a system that only
lived for 18 months, when they have been supporting us for over
20 years now," he said.
    Chigaga said that Britain was now considering its stand
following representation by the Zambian government.
    Chigaga told Reuters that guidelines on the functioning of
the new economic prgram would be released soon.
 REUTER
