Thursday 01 Sep 2022 @ 15:20
Chatham House
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Zambia: The first year of a Hichilema foreign policy

President Hakainde Hichilema impressively maintained momentum on a highly creative foreign policy through his first year as Zambia’s leader.

At his inauguration one year ago this week, Zambia’s president Hakainde Hichilema inherited a country with a heavily indebted economy and a reputation for fiscal unreliability.

He has secured, for now at least, Zambian citizens’ buy-in and patience for what he is seeking to do – with future debt-repayment austerity lurking on the horizon.

Hichilema’s predecessor Edgar Lungu consistently harassed – and some would say persecuted – Hichilema, casting him in the role of a perpetual loser who was destined never to win the presidency with five failed previous efforts.

At the same time, Lungu embarked on an ambitious but recklessly-financed programme of both prestige and infrastructural projects, relying greatly on foreign liquidity particularly from China, and on commercial borrowings by way of the issue of Eurobonds – upon which his administration defaulted.

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Original article link: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2022/08/zambia-first-year-hichilema-foreign-policy

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