PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu’s resolve to promote economic diversification and industrialisation in the next five years is a step in the right direction, Livingstone Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) president Namakau Siyanga has said.
Ms Siyanga said the fact that the economy would be diversified from copper dependence to that of agriculture in the next five years under President Lungu’s administration was a great milestone to Zambia’s economic development.
She said her Chamber was happy that agriculture would be the major priority of the economic diversification agenda saying the sector was key in tackling poverty and unemployment in the country.
In a response to a press query yesterday, Ms Siyanga also said the industrialisation drive was important in creating the much needed jobs in the economy.
“Like President Lungu said during the ceremonial opening of the National Assembly of Zambia recently, it is important to add value to our products so that some of the products can be exported to boost our foreign earnings.
“For instance instead of selling ground nuts or soya beans in their raw form, we should be selling peanut butter as well as cooking oil and juices among others,” Ms Siyanga said.
She was also happy that youth unemployment would be tackled to reduce the number of young people on the streets.
Ms Siyanga expressed hope that load shedding of electricity would come to an end during the next five years to stir more economic activities.
“The Head of State said his Government has made efforts to reduce load shedding which we can all bear witness so far.
“With the strategies he has employed over the next five years, we hope load shedding will be a thing of the past,” she said.
Ms Siyanga was also happy that President Lungu’s administration was committed to improving the business environment and competitiveness by promoting the use of efficient systems for business licensing and regulations.
“This is good as it will reduce the cost of doing business, promote transparency, increase productivity and eliminate opportunities for corruption.
“In overall, I would like to say that President Lungu touched on pertinent issues in his address to the National Assembly and we hope that his five years will not be a talking shop but that which will deliver to the Zambian people what he has promises,” Ms Siyanga said.
Ati 1 million jobs. We are still waiting chi shupu iwe
@Siyanga, wena, you need to walk around Lstone and see how the move of the provincial HQ to Choma by PF has decimated the local Lstone economy. Lstone now solely relies on foreign tourists for cash. There are no shoppers in Shoprite. Taxis are parked all day long. There’s no buying power among the locals. Surely this is more important for your Zacci branch than buying into Lungu’s fake dream of industrialisation.
Oh this mantra is still ongoing! Will it ever be realised at all? I went to school in the late 70s and early 80s when the main social studies and geograhy lessons were copper is a waste asset and Zambia needs to diversify.
As much as the intentions sound good I think Lungu and his PF want to use this mantra to borrow more money for stealing period.
I have always warned you guys that what ever PF says the opposite is the truth. Never trust thugs to do anything good at all.
Lungu his PF are a bunch of thugs thats it. Killing and brutalising women is what they know.
i wish them the best and I will believe after I see them doing the right things and stop oppressing the opposition
juice from ground nuts and soya beans ? am yawning
Yeah, that! More of the same lies.
IF WORDS WERE ACTIONS, ZAMBIA WOULD BE RIDING ON MANY HORSES BY NOW. PEOPLE WITH DECEPTIVE MINDS ARE IN GOVERNMENT, AND THIS IS VERY UNFORTUNATE.
How will LUNGU improve agriculture when he’s implementing programs to destroy agriculture?
1. By removal of fertilzer subsidies.
2. Removal of input subsidies
3. Removal of subsidies for chemicals used in dipping animals
4. Removing of electricity subsidies to harm the commercial farmers
5. Appointment of Dora Siliya, a CORRUPT official who will leave FRA in tatters. Her teenage son was found with K2Billion (unrebased) in 2011.
ukzambiansDOTcoDOTuk/home/2011/11/26/dora-siliya%E2%80%99s-son-kwenje-paul-siliya23-has-over-k2-billion-in-his-bank-accounts/
Replace DOT with .
When we told FTJ not to remove subsidies for dipping chemicals, he refused to listen. When Foot & Mouth disease came, it wiped out 75% of livestock. We were at a point where we were about to get an…
CONTD
When we told FTJ not to remove subsidies for dipping chemicals, he refused to listen. When Foot & Mouth disease came, it wiped out 75% of livestock. We were at a point where we were about to get an export quota for beef to E.U. before the outbreak.
6. Removing of fuel subsidies will increase transportation costs & prices of fertilizer mealiemeal
7. Wage freeze in civil service (& other private companies) will mean no buying power for most employees.
@Maloza
You are right. Wherever Siliya goes that is where the looting will happen. I foresee price controls on maize so that farmers are stuffed both ways on inputs and maize prices. Export quotas will be strict so that only PF cadres are allowed to export to our hunger stricken neighbours in Zim and Malawi. That’s how money will be made by PF cadres going forward. That is why Dollar Syria has to run Agriculture. The old inflated infrastructure contracts hobby horse is dead after PF blew over $9 billion in 5 years.
The president must hear this: is it by coincidence or deliberate that the civil service commission has been posting senior civil servants to the regions they come from? can you imagine that almost all the District Medical Officers ( in-charge of districts health offices) in southern province are tongas. Am sure this is the same in all other provinces and could be the reason why almost all the health posts in the region (southern, western and north western) have not been opened – out of fear that government would be praised. what do they discuss during tea breaks at workshops, meetings and even chat when they meet? All good things the government may propose fall on deaf ears and are never supported adequately or exaggerated. can you imagine that even the provincial head is local. the…