Budget boost with ZCCM sale

Zambia can run a growth-oriented budget next year provided it ends “the financial bleeding of the economy” caused by the need to prop up Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines, Finance Minister Katele Kalumba said on Thursday. He told a news conference the government was spending US $14 million a month on keeping ZCCM going while it sought buyers for the company it could rely on, Reuters reported. “We are going through a difficult patch,” Kalumba said. “The government is committed to getting a buyer who does not walk away from the ZCCM sale deal. We have to end the financial bleeding of the economy through the ZCCM losses.” The government has signed a heads of agreement with Anglo American Plc for the sale of the main ZCCM assets of Nchanga, Nampundwe and Konkola. The deal has to be concluded by 31 January 2000, and Kalumba has said a contract would be signed before end-December. The government is in talks to sell the ZCCM assets of Nkana and Mufulira to Canada’s First Quantum Minerals Limited and Poland’s KGHM Polska Miedz SA respectively. It expects the deals to be finalised before the end of the year, Reuters said.