LUNGU

By JUDITH NAMUTOWE-
DEPUTY speaker of Parliament, Mkhondo Lungu has called for concerted efforts that will ensure benefits arising from the country’s strong economic performance.
Mr Lungu said such benefits should trickle down to ordinary Zambians through job creation and poverty reduction.
Speaking when he officiated at the Plan and Implementation of  Product Value Chains and  Physical Industrial Clusters for Members of Parliament (MPs) at Parliament yesterday, Mr Lungu said despite strong economic fundamentals, poverty and unemployment has continued to be high.
Mr Lungu said despite strong growth in Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) inflows, this has created very few formal sector jobs.
“As you may be aware, Zambia’s current investment framework identifies priority sectors for investment and provides tax and non-tax incentives for firms operating in these sectors.
“Iam informed that over the last five years, the investment framework has delivered significant FDIs. Regrettably, despite the strong growth of FDI inflow, it is argued that these have created few formal sector jobs,” he said.
He said this was largely attributed to the fact that investment has taken place in technology intensive sectors while the potential in labour intensive sectors had not been fully exploited.
This, Mr Lungu said,  was a reflection of policy constraints, low productivity, poor human capital development and significant infrastructure deficits.
“There is evidence based on the Government’s statistics, showing that Zambia has been experiencing strong macroeconomic stability with real gross domestic product  growth averaging 5.7 per cent since 2001,” Mr Lungu said.
He said the country has continued to experience single digit inflation and a relatively stable exchange rate.
The workshop was meant to inform MPs about the work being undertaken by the Ministry of Commerce Trade and Industry regarding the implementation of product value chains and industrial clusters through the Citizen Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC).
Mr Lungu urged MPs to come up with key resolutions that would assist in the promotion of employment creation particularly among the youth in the country.