Zim Confident Donors will Open aid Taps_International donors could soon approve large-scale aid to Zimbabwe to help it repair broken infrastructure and rebuild its shattered economy, Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe says.

Western governments give humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe but have been reluctant to grant significant development aid until they see more evidence of reforms being implemented by the unity government.

But Khupe, vice-president of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was hopeful of a change in stance after talks in London with ministers from Britain’s two-month-old coalition government.

“They want to expand to things like infrastructural development. This is what they are trying to do in Zimbabwe because they have realised that humanitarian support alone will not help us. It is important that we grow our economy,” Khupe told Reuters in an interview on Friday evening.

She said it was an international, not just a British, plan.

“It is everybody, the European Union and everybody else.

They are also willing to assist Zimbabwe. The United States as well,” she said after speaking at the ZG Club, a group promoting business links with Zimbabwe.

She said she was “very confident” of a large-scale international financing package for Zimbabwe soon, although she could not put a figure on it.

Khupe said she met Henry Bellingham, the Foreign Office minister responsible for Africa, and junior development minister Stephen O’Brien during her visit to London.