ZIMBABWE is drawing up plans to scale down the cost of running its 44 foreign missions, while tackling debts of US$30 million accumulated over several years.
A key proposal in the reforms is a plan to buy buildings housing embassies instead of renting.
Joey Bimha, the permanent secretary in the Foreign Affairs ministry, said they had handed over draft proposals of cost-cutting measures to the Finance Minister Tendai Biti and Public Service Minister Elphas Mukonoweshuro ahead of the 2011 budget statement on Thursday next week.
Bimha said Wednesday: “We have proposed costcutting measures on utilities, transport and rentals.
“We are also encouraging the government to explore purchasing properties abroad as opposed to renting buildings.
“We can cut on rentals by buying properties in the host countries, which we will use as offices and for accommodating our staff rather than renting.”
He revealed that the government had already considered buying a building housing its Indonesian mission, while China had offered Zimbabwe land to build its embassy building in Beijing.
In his budget statement last year, Biti revealed that the embassies required US$3 million to run monthly.
“This obligation is before account is taken of the over US$30 million we have incurred in arrears as at December 2008,” Biti said.
Bimha added: “A team comprising officials from our ministry, Finance Ministry and the President’s Department visited several countries to study how we can save.
“We have to find ways of doing business for less.
“During this exercise, we covered nearly 70 percent of our foreign missions and our findings are constituted in the report we submitted.”