The Private Sector Development Association (PSDA) has said the bilateral agreements that Zambia signed with Brazil will help open doors for the development of private sector in Zambia .
PSDA Chairperson Yusuf Dodia said the agreements that were signed by Presidents of the two countries will enable the private sector form joint venture with their Brazilian counterparts in many sectors.
Mr. Dodia told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka Friday that the agreements will also help accelerate the social, economic and cultural development of the country.
He noted that the signed agreements were good as they would promote South to South dialogue. He said Zambia stands to benefit a lot from the agreements looking the experience, Brazil has in many areas like, Bio technology, transport, and manufacturing sector.
In this vein, Mr Dodia called for serious implementations of the assigned agreements, if they were to be of benefit to Zambia.
Mr. Dodia said the agreements between Zambia and Brazil was not new but the past ones lacked implementation.
He expressed optimism that these agreements would be operationalised as shown by Government’s willingness to send a delegation to Brazil to learn from their achievements before the implementation of the agreements.
Zambia on Thursday signed a number of agreements with Brazil among them the exception of VISA requirements and the Food and Nutrition Security aimed at eradicating poverty.
ZANIS
I agree BUT can we please try to encourage our Zambian engineers and other professionals to be involved in the design stage of projects in Zambia? Already, we have a situation where Mwenye’s, Muzungus and Chinamen give us money which they say is for development but then take over the design and construction of projects such as what has happened to most projects in the country since Independence. In South Africa, the construction of stadiums and other infrastructure were carried out by locals. Here even construction of a two roomed rural clinic is given to Chinese.
Grading of rural roads is given to Mwenyes. I also smell a rat when this Visa waiver was affected, it means we shall have Brazilians coming to carry out projects and Zambians will use the Visa waiver to just go for shopping trips. In the end the local skills will not be utilised and that means development is lost. In addition, I don’t know why so much emphasis is being put on biotechnology when infect Brazil is the world’s second largest producer of iron ore and have a huge steel industry. I thought some emphasis could be put on this industry as well. We all must know the importance of having a steel industry. I don’t know what others look at this situation.
I fully second you Mwamoneni.