Government says the potential that infrastructure development has in job creation has not been realized because of lack of a policy framework that guide the construction sector on how government’s blue print in employment creation can be actualized.
Central Province Permanent Secretary (PS) Chanda Kabwe said the country’s efforts to achieve economic diversification and job creation could be attained through addressing socio-economic and structural issues which constitute binding constraints that are related to inadequate infrastructure.
Mr. Kabwe said this in a speech read on his behalf by Central Province Deputy Permanent Secretary Felix Mangwato during the official opening of the Policy Consultative meeting on Labour based Technology and Output Based Road Contractors sensitization meeting in Kabwe today.
ZANIS reports that Mr. Kabwe said inadequate and low quality infrastructure development has led to low economic activity and high production costs that has resulted in low competitiveness.
‘’Crititical infrastructure such as housing, electricity, feeder roads, rail, air and water transport and sanitation have not been adequate to facilitate the desired levels of economic transformation and leverage private investment,’’ he said.
The PS observed that it is out of this realization that government through the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure Development and the National Council for Construction (NCC) with the help of the World Bank has developed a White Paper which it intends to adopt into policy on mainstreaming Labour Based Technology (LBT) in the construction sector in the country.
Mr. Chanda observed that the Labour Based Technology (LBT) once adopted will clearly specify which works will be executed manually using human labour.
He said some of the promises contained in the ruling PF manifesto in remedying the infrastructure sector included the rehabilitation and upgrading of the existing road network including feeder roads, constructing ring roads around major cities and to construct or extend the rail network to areas of economic activities through public-private partnership and to promote the public-private partnership in the aviation industry.
He however, observed that government is aware that making policies only is not enough adding that the key lay on how the policies adopted are implemented.
This is where the PF can’t get it. They start with developing infrastructure such as roads and taking them everywhere mostly where the ROI is zero. The problem is that they want to develop Zambia using grade seven social studies but it will never work because developing a country takes more than grade seven social studies. Work on the economy first. Make money and then you can spend it on infrastructure. This system where you spend money first after borrowing will put us in problems. Because these projects you are implementing must be able to pay back what was borrowed for their construction which I don’t see happening. If you borrow money for a project, you need to be sure it will bring enough revenue to pay back what was borrowed.
Government says infrastructure developments has potential to create jobs:
This government infrastructure development is just a Ponzi scheme. It is just an opportunity to steal money from government coffers.