President Edgar Lungu’s Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations Amos Chanda State House has lashed out at critics of President Lungu’s State of the Nation address to Parliament.
Various economic observers have criticised President Lungu for failing to address the current economic woes during his opening of Parliament.
Some feel that President Lungu failed to lay down a plan of how his Government will tackle the depreciation of the Kwacha.
But Mr Chanda said President Lungu addressed the issue of the Kwacha broadly when he talked about fundamental issues which have led to the depreciation of the currency.
‘The Presidents critics over the speech only wanted him to say the word Kwacha then they would know that he has addressed the problem of the Kwacha, ‘ he said.
He added, ‘The fundamental problems that trouble the Kwacha are issues of lack of diversification, as long as we don’t diversify the economy away from Copper then we have limited space for exports.’
Mr Chanda said President Lungu addressed broadly and very comprehensively the issue of economic diversification.
‘He addressed the issue of diversification and it is through diversification that we can bring about an economy that exports, when we export then we can earn sufficient dollar liquidity that is required in the market to cool off the market and reduce pressure on the Kwacha and therefore the dollar Kwacha equilibrium could be somewhere where it is acceptable. ‘
He said, ‘So critics should go and read Economics again, when this economy expanded in the manner the President proposed, then we will see that he has addressed fundamentals that come to trouble the Kwacha.’
Meanwhile, Public Policy analyst Mbita Chitala has observed that President Edgar Lungu’s speech to Parliament last Friday laid a good foundation for a developmental national budget for 2016.
Dr. Chitala says he expects the 2016 national budget to support the ongoing infrastructure development projects in thChitalae country.
In an interview with Qfm News, Dr. Chitala is certain that Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda will present a budget that will deal with the current fiscal difficulties Zambia is faced with.
Dr. Chitala has cited the volatile exchange rate and the current load shedding in the country as some the immediate challenges the 2016 national budget should deal with.
He is of the view that the whole idea of the 2016 national budget should be to reduce on the anguish the people of Zambia are presently going through.
Dr. Chitala states that this is particularly that President Lungu’s speech during the opening of the 5th session of the 11th National Assembly has come as a breath of fresh air to many Zambians.
Amos you would have said go and study wisdom. Even economists fail. When you have wisdom in whatever you do you will never fail. People will talk positive or negative. Have wisdom and don’t just answer anyone or everyone. Wisdom is the key to every success. Be wise in your Governing.
The persons that are in most need of studying economics are this clown Chanda and his illiterate and uninformed boss, Jamesoni Lungu!
Zambia needs leaders that are informed and educated on the challenges facing the Nation, not a bunch of ignoramuses that only wake up only after a disaster has happened. All of our economic and energy challenges have been public knowledge for years. Batoka Gorge has been “on the cards” since 1992. What has this PF Government done to fast track its construction? NOTHING, until Jamesoni recovered from his hangover FOUR YEARS after PF came to power and finally announced it!
The Kwacha has fluctuated with changes in copper prices from independence, and politicians living in cloud-cuckoo land have borrowed massively when prices are high in the past. Our…
The Kwacha has fluctuated with changes in copper prices from independence, and politicians living in cloud-cuckoo land have borrowed massively when prices are high in the past. Our useless fossil of a Finance Minister should know better as it happened under his watch before.
Now, who should go and study economics Mr. Chanda??????????????????????????
CIVIL SERVANTS NOT PAID WHY?
Iwe numb skull chanda, can stop vomiting rubbish and explain the civil servants why they have not been paid their salaries yet.
Has Lungu and his stooges stolen the whole of $1.2 billion dollars?
Only UPND will save Zambia from total economic collapse.
Viva UPND.
Kays you are so right. We have seen how the so called Economist HH fails to come up with clear and concise Economic plans that will take this country forward. To me it appears like ECL understands economic issues better than HH.
“When you have wisdom in whatever you do you will never fail. ” Untrue!
Many wise people actually learned from their own and other people’s failures.
Studying Economics does not necessarily guarantee that the critics will agree with Lungu’s policies. Economists like lawyers don’t always agree on issues even among themselves. Social Sciences are driven by a combination of fact and opinion.
This Amos Chanda is really dull!
We all know that diversification is the answer to the Kwacha depreciation. The question is not do we need diversification, but how can we achieve it. And to this question, Lungu has failed to provide the Nation with a viable plan.
Diversification of the economy will require massive investment. Where will that come from?
The PF has been very successful in doing exactly the wrong things to encourage investment. Borrowing, inconsistency, bloated government to name only a few. Massive expenditures on roads when electricity is the biggest problem shows just how incompetent and out of touch PF is.
@ joker can you do a proof reading to shit you ‘ve posted. Can understand what you talking about.
Mr. Chanda,
Instead of crapping in public, why not learn to read numbers which are self-explanatory:
Zambian Kwacha v. USD
23 September 2015 09:30 10.2228 10.2428
22 September 2015 15:30 10.0839 10.1039
22 September 2015 12:30 10.0403 10.0603
22 September 2015 09:30 9.9817 10.0017
21 September 2015 15:30 9.9856 10.0056
21 September 2015 12:30 9.9844 10.0044
21 September 2015 09:30 9.9833 10.0033
18 September 2015 15:30 9.9772 9.9972
18 September 2015 12:30 9.9533 9.9733
18 September 2015 09:30 9.9719 9.9919
Freedom what exactly do you understand about the devaluation of the Kwacha? Is the devaluation of a currency alone a sign that an economy is not performing well? China recently devalued the Yuan to spur exports and guess what most Chinese welcomed this move as China is a net exporter. In simple language what ECL was saying is, let have many products to export so that if some products are not doing well on the export market others will. UNIP was in power for 29 years never succeeded to diversify the economy. The MMD was in power for 20 years and in my opinion created the current problems especially during the Chiluba regime. Instead of promoting the culture of creating factories all the MMD did was encourage the creation of shopping malls. I have seen bags of onion being imported from…
@ MWINE MUNZI
You are right. China DID ON ITS OWN WILL devalue their currency in order to bust its export. However, Zambian Kwacha has CONSTANTLY LOST its value due to few (according to your economic “expertise”) irrelevant factors:
– excessive and non accountable external borrowings at huge interest rate of almost 9% variable (I did borrow USD @ fixed 6.25%) ,
– uncontrollable internal borrowing or “moping-up” of cash liquidity, whit resulting interest rates for private investment of 22.5% (wow, great incentive for investment),
– as to ECL “expertise” (lol), please stop and think, what expertise?
Talk is only cheep commodity in to-day Zambia.
Where are INCENTIVES to kick-start local economy? In empty words? Or may be in official inflation figures of under 7%? Yah, 7%…
@ MWINE MUNZI – continuation
Yah, 7% when cost of creeping devaluation of Kwacha in the last 12 months amounts to 56%.!!!
And to answer your question, No I do not have clue about theoretical economy.
After all, I am NOT PARASITIC paper-clip pusher whose ONLY contribution to National GP consist of his salary and related benefits. Instead, I am person who provide salary to hard working Zambians in time of GREAT economic down-turn caused by GREAT fiscal and economic INCOMPETENCE.
Four years of PF EXPERTISE have produced what? Bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, ……………………….
Mwine Mushi, you are the only one who can reason. Other people are just being political as always. It is important to actually analysis and simplify an issue whenever you what to criticise or contribute towards it. That is what Mune Munzi has done.