The Zimbabwe government says it needs $27 billion to fund the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-economic Transformation (ZimAsset).

The bulk of the money will go towards the energy, water, sanitation and social sectors. The five-year economic blue print which was launched late last year will be funded through domestic resources, external borrowings, diaspora bonds and joint ventures. The Zimbabwe government will also explore the possibility of financial assistance through regional bilateral arrangements with Botswana, Angola and South Africa.

“We need to pursue issues of joint ventures because that is where we have scope to achieve greater mileage given our limited domestic resource mobilisation capacity,” says Zimbabwe’sacting director of fiscal policy Jonah Mushayi.

Mushayi says government has provided financing for some of the projects in the 2014 budget, but, “we cannot do much so we will continue to pursue the issue of joint ventures as our second option of financing, which can achieve greater mileage.”

The country will also explore the possibility of tapping into the €29.1 billion fund set aside for the Caribbean and PaJonacific countries under the 11th European Development Fund as well as the Islamic Bonds which have reserves of more than $110 billion.

Zimbabwe is $6 billion in arrears with finance institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Mushayi says IMF’s staff-monitored programme is key to reducing the country’s debt.