By REBECCA MUSHOTA –
THE Swedish Ambassador to Zambia Henrik Cederin has said that ‘talented’ Zambia has the potential to deal with its debt challenges because of efforts being made towards diversifying the economy.
Mr Cederin said in an interview during the celebration of the St Lucia Day in Lusaka on Tuesday evening that Zambia had the ability to overcome its fiscal challenges because Zambians had skills and much work had been done towards diversifying the economy.
He said that 2018 looked good for Zambia because efforts had been made
towards diversifying the economy and value addition.
“I think that we have a good 2018 ahead of us. There are challenges but there is work done towards diversifying the economy and value addition,” Mr Cederin said.
He said Zambia had a huge challenge of debt which was now at about 60 per cent of Gross Domestic Product.
Mr Cederin said Zambia, however, had potential to overcome the challenges because Zambians were skilled and talented.
He said this was a good time to move forward and make the diversification and the value addition programmes work.
Mr Cederin said Zambia also needed to be cautious with how it invested
its money.
He said Zambia should maintain its close relations with the cooperating partners like the World Bank.
Sweden, Mr Cederin said, would continue supporting Zambia’s economy through its companies that have the right technology to materialise the steps towards diversification and value addition.
Sweden had a number of companies operating in the agriculture sector which had the appropriate technology to support Zambia’s value addition programme.
Mr Cederin said a number of Swedish companies had visited Zambia this year and possibly, partnerships with Zambian companies would come up.