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Zaire Foreign Aid
In 1990 Zaire received an estimated US$711.1 million in
development assistance. This sum represented a decline
from US$805
million in foreign aid from bilateral donors in 1987.
France,
Germany, and Italy accounted for much of the foreign aid
in 1990,
with France (US$180 million) replacing Belgium as Zaire's
primary
development partner. Belgium's importance to Zaire as a
source of
aid and trade declined in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
as
relations between the two countries broke down over the
issue of
human rights abuses in Zaire. As Zaire's economic
situation
deteriorated in the early 1990s, foreign donors and
creditors
provided assistance primarily in the form of food aid.
Most other
bilateral and multilateral aid had been terminated in
1990-91 and
was unlikely to resume until Mobutu left the scene and
democratization took hold in Zaire. Nevertheless, China
reportedly
has become more active in Zaire since the cutoff of aid
from the
West. More than 1,000 Chinese technicians are reported to
be
working in Zaire on agricultural and forestry projects.
In late 1992, in an attempt to tackle Zaire's economic
crisis
and court foreign donors, the government of Prime Minister
Etienne
Tshisekedi wa Mulumba announced its commitment to economic
liberalization (including privatization of some
parastatals) and
stabilization. To that end, it initiated several measures,
such as
the imposition of import quotas and tightened controls of
the money
supply. In addition, the administration declared its
intention of
curbing government spending, controlling inflation, and
ending
corruption, in particular illegal disbursement and the
arbitrary
allocation of credit. International organizations and
various
foreign governments expressed interest in resuming aid but
remained
cautious, unconvinced that a credible stabilization
program was
possible in Zaire. Belgium and France provided additional
humanitarian assistance, but continued to insist that a
full
resumption of aid depends on democratic change in Zaire
(in
particular, concrete evidence that the prime minister's
government
actually controls finances and the military) and an
IMF-World Bank
sponsorship of the government's economic program.
Data as of December 1993
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