.MR SATA
By KAIKO NAMUSA –
PRESIDENT Michael Sata has said 436,363 jobs have been created in various economic sectors between October 2011 and July 2014.
This is according to the President’s latest Facebook update yesterday.
President Sata reiterated the Government’s obligation to employment creation as a top strategy to ensure stability of society and overall growth of the economy.
The figure represents a significant increase from April this year, when statistics for jobs created stood at 377,470 in various economic sectors.
The latest figures of jobs created were in the tourism sector which accounted for 218,701 jobs, the service, finance and banking sectors which accounted for 75, 578 while electricity, gas and water had
28,618 jobs.
The construction sector contributed 73,311, transport and communication, 15, 114, and the education sector accounted for 10,099.
In the community, social and personal sector, 4,998 jobs were created, the health sector accounted for 3,640 jobs and agriculture, forestry and fishing boosted job creation at 3,216 while 3,088 jobs were from
others.
“Our Government attaches great importance to employment creation as the top-most strategy for ensuring the stability of society and overall growth of the economy,” President Sata said.
“In this vein between October 2011 and July 2014, a total of 436,363 jobs have been created in the economy.”
Mr Sata said the Government had further accelerated the development of the Multi-Facility Economic Zones (MFEZ) and Industrial Parks which were expected to create more than 110,000 jobs once fully operational.
He said to date, six MFEZs had been declared and included the Chambishi MFEZ, the Lusaka South MFEZ, Lusaka East MFEZ, Lumwana MFEZ, Sub Sahara Gemstone Exchange Industrial Park and the Roma Industrial Park.
The President said in addition, two other MFEZs, the Kalumbila and Maamba had since been approved for declaration.
“Our Government will continue to focus on exploiting advantages in labour and natural resources, and actively developing labour-intensive industries and enterprises in line with the PF manifesto,” Mr Sata said.
