By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –

GOVERNMENT has pledged maximum media coverage of the African Development Bank (ADB) Annual conference.
The conference to be hosted by Zambia next year is expected to be attended by more than 3,000 delegates from across Africa and beyond.
Information and Broadcasting Services Permanent Secretary Godfrey Malama said the conference would among other benefits provide a unique opportunity to market Zambia as a preferred investment destination to the outside world.
Mr Malama said at his office yesterday when he met a visiting delegation from the ADB headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast that as one of the 54 member states of the ADB, Zambia has, and continues to benefit immensely from the Bank in various sectors of development.
These sectors are agriculture, water and sanitation, energy, education and health.
“In this regard, Zambia has the honour of hosting the 2016 Annual Meetings of the ADB . To this effect, my ministry is chairing the publicity sub-committee charged with the responsibility of publicising this important event both at home and abroad,” Mr Malama said.
This is according to a statement released yesterday by the Press and Public Relations Unit at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services. Mr Malama told the delegation, which is in the country to hold meetings with Government and other stakeholders on preparations for Zambia’s hosting of the conference that Zambia’s media landscape is highly liberalised.
He said that there were more than 70 community and private radio stations and no less than 12 television stations on air countrywide.
Mr Malama informed the team that the country was currently in transit from analogue to digital television broadcasting as prescribed by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union, ITU.
He said with the advent of digital broadcasting technology, Government would achieve nearly 100 per cent of television coverage of the country, a landmark development in Government’s efforts of creating a well informed citizenry.