Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda says Government wants to increase the pace at which the Zambian economy is developing in order to improve the welfare of people in the country.
Speaking today when he met the Government leader of Shenzeng in the Chinese Province of Guangdong, Mr Chikwanda said government is not impressed with the rate at which Zambia is developing.
“We want it to develop 10 times at this rate, so we are currently working very hard so that we can develop the way that China is developing,” he said.
He said the country has enormous resources with a good climate and peaceful people who are culturally hospitable, which he described as value addition to economic development.
Mr Chikwanda observed that the most precious resource that a country could have is people saying China managed to develop because the construction works of its massive infrastructure was labour intensive.
He attributed China’s heroic performance in developing to the Cultural Revolution by Chairman Mao, the founding father of that country.
Mr Chikwanda stated that chairman Mao instilled confidence in the people of China saying people cannot make innovations without confidence.
“He made the Chinese people believe in themselves after which they worked together to contribute to the development of China,” he said.
He observed that Zambia has been lagging behind because there have been no innovations and that people have been adopting the western culture.
“People want to dress like those of the western,” he said.
Mr Chikwanda commended China for its support in implementing developmental programmes especially in infrastructure development, which he said is a major factor to development.
He stated that Zambia has nearly the same population as Shenzeng with a vast land of 752, 000 square kilometers though development in Shenzeng has grown at a tremendous speed.
And Mr Xu Qin said Zambia has the potential to grow due to its enormous natural resources of water and minerals.
Mr Qin said China wants to make Shenzeng as an economic model due to developments made through the establishment an economic zone.
Earlier, a high level delegation of Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and other government officials led by Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda today visited Shenzeng Museum to get a clear understanding of how the established economic zones transformed Shenzeng into one of the richest cities in China.
Shenzeng city leads in high-tech, financial services, foreign trade, shipping and creative cultural industries, which have also been enhanced with the country’s structural reforms and broader opening to the outside world.
ZANIS
well well true, we need to get our act together as a nation…lets not support greedy politicians and work as one nation…
I Can foresee this trip to china bringing a lot of development to Zambia, Mr chikwanda and your team lobby more from the chocholees
Human resource is always mismanaged in African countries resulting in poor or failure to achieve intended developmental results.In Zambia we have developed a culture of suits and ties!!We have lamentably failed to arness the human resourse especially our women who think they cannot do certain jobs like sweeting the streets or even driving public buses!!Its encouraging to see women bus drivers in Botswana and South Africa.A lot of women in South Africa work on roads and dont mind.In Zambia very few are involved in construction work.They say “ulembona shani ine ukupyanga mumusebo!” This is attitude should be changed.Beer drinking has also contributed to failure to manage human resourse because one can find beer almost anywhere at any time.There is need to regulate beer drinking!!
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