Briefing his executive in Kitwe this morning on the plans for 2018, Sinkamba said the “Radical Quantum-Leap Economic Transformation Agenda 21” to be launched in the first quarter of 2018, is the party’s economic manifesto aimed at leap-frogging Zambia’s economic growth from single-digit to double-digit growth should the party form government in 2021. He said the agenda is anchored on high-value agriculture, innovation, renewable energy, eco-tourism, information and communication technology, nuclear medicine and space science.
“Zambia has failed to win the battle against poverty in the last 53 years of independence because the economic growth achieved throughout has been too little to make a difference. It has always been single-digit instead of double-digit.
“It is like adding a single teaspoon of sugar in a 200 litre drum of hot water and expect to make tea for your guests. Don’t expect a single teaspoon of the sugar to sweeten a drum of water. You need a substantial quantity of sugar to sweeten a drum full of water. Otherwise your guests will think you have lost your mind,” he said.
“And exactly is the case with economic growth. You can’t meaningfully reduce poverty hovering around 70 per cent from 4-7 per cent economic growth. You really must be out of your mind to expect any meaningful poverty reduction.
“What you need to achieve that is a quantum leap of economic growth which runs in double digits to make a significant impact on poverty reduction,” Sinkamba said.
“Figuratively, our economic policy, as the Green Party, targets to grow the economy substantially from the current 4-7% annually, up to not less than 80% in the first 5 years. How to get there is what is outlined in our “Radical Quantum-Leap Economic Transformation Agenda 21”, he added.
He said the party will need to lay the foundation for the agenda well in advance of the 2021 elections. He said starting early next year his party will carry out a massive recruitment of youths who intend to join ZNS and work on farms and various industries that his party intends to create under ZNS. He said the recruitment will be done long before the elections so that if the party forms government in 2021, it is ready to govern and implement its agenda from the first day in office.
“So, instead of following what other parties are doing, whereby they have launched party membership renewal, we have a different approach. In the first quarter of 2018, we plan to embark on a ZNS recruitment exercise,” he said.
“We will place TV, radio and newspaper adverts for ZNS recruitment. We will ask youths aged between 14 and 30 years old who wish to join ZNS in 2021 to ensure that they register themselves with our mobile teams. We plan that the recruitment exercise is concluded by June 2018.
“We plan to recruit about two million youths. It will not matter to us whether they have degrees, diplomas, certificates, or are physically challenged or what not. The only qualification is that they must be Zambian citizens. That’s all. We have a plan for every youth under the transformed ZNS,” Sinkamba added.
“We want to orient them to our economic agenda in advance so that should we win elections in 2021, priority for ZNS recruitment will be given to youths whose names appear in our registers and have been oriented to our economic agenda. We want to ensure they are registered and train the in advance so that they are fully conversant with our economic agenda, as well as expected roles, outcomes, and time-frames.
“So, when I say we want to be ready to govern by 2021, I mean just that. We want to take positively use our 8 million idle youths. We want to make them agents of economic change and not agents of violence and destruction. We want to make them the main drivers of radical economic transformation which will leap-frog economic growth to quantum leaps.
“That’s why it is imperative for us to make the recruits understand their role long before we form government. We want to make them an integral part of our plans now and not after the 2021 elections,” he said.
Just call it what it is, bwana, “Party Mobilization and Recruitment.”
Pilato should be Green Party spokesman.
Great move Mr Sinkamba Sir! We are with you 100 percent – the youth need an opportunity to do something better with their lifes!
Brilliant thinking bwana dope president. Keep on selling your agenda, you never know. My only worry is the use of ZNS in your economic recovery plan. In my opinion that can’t work, you need a public partnership arrangement. Good luck.
KKKK Dagger is dangerous to your mental health. You intend to grow the economy by up to 80% from 3.3%-4% by recruiting youths in ZNS? What gibberish is this ba Sinkamba? Yapping is cheap than critical thinking. Just say that you are trying to recruit some members that are non-existent kkk.
This is the politics Zambians want to see not trading insults, derogatory remarks and destruction of property. We hope other parties will emulate the Greens.I tend to agree with the Greens on the double-digit argument. China was a nothing to write home at late as 1990 until their economy hit double digit-growth figures. Today, the American financial system is dependent on China. If China withdrawals its money from America, the American financial system is doomed. Unfortunately, America’s economic strength is at risk from strategic, well-coordinated and state-sponsored Chinese investments in American financial institutions. China, which owned an estimated $1.268 trillion in U.S. Treasuries, is the number-one investor among foreign governments, according to the June 2014 figures released by…
Continued: China, which owned an estimated $1.268 trillion in U.S. Treasuries, is the number-one investor among foreign governments, according to the June 2014 figures released by the U.S. Treasury. This amounts to over 21% of the U.S. debt held overseas and about 7.2% of the United States’ total debt load.
Wish you well Mr Sinkamba.
Zambians want to hear alternative programs and not insults everyday.
Your argument is valid
UPND is dead, it has no ideas. It has no clue in approaching the next elections. It has very lazy leaders, grovelling in the past!