By JAMES KUNDA –
THE Governmet has assured the African Development Bank (AfDB) that its annual meeting slated for Lusaka this year will be successfully hosted.
Secretary to the Treasury Fredson Yamba said preparations for the event, scheduled for May 23 to 27, were on course and works on the conference facility at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre, would be completed next month.
Mr Yamba said this at the Ministry of Finance head office in Lusaka yesterday where the Government and the AfDB signed an aide memoire after the second preparatory visit of officials from the bank.
The document was signed after a group of AfDB officials led by the bank’s director at its headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Olivier Pinzi, completed a week-long tour of facilities ahead of the indaba.
Mr Yamba said hotel and catering, transport and communication facilities and health and media services would all be in place to ensure the success of the gathering, which would attract more than 4,000 delegates from 54 AfDB member states.
“I would like to assure you all that the aide memoire we have just signed signifies Government’s commitment to ensuring that all areas pertinent to the success of the annual meeting receive attention in the course of our preparations.
“The aide memoire will serve as a guide to all stakeholders, particularly those of us tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that we deliver on this important task,” Mr Yamba said.
Mr Pinzi described the mission’s time in Zambia as fruitful, saying he was confident that when a similar trip is undertaken in March this year, preparations for the indaba would be in the final stages.