Speaking at a media briefing in Lusaka, Ms Siliya, however, stated that this did not mean that the President will travel unnecessarily, adding that each trip President Lungu makes abroad is about the country and not about him as an individual.
Ms.Siliya said that the President’s job description includes selling Zambia abroad to attract investment, adding that if the President does not travel, people in the country will be sharing poverty.
Ms. Siliya who is also Information and broadcasting services minister further stated that all the trips that President Lungu makes both outside and within the country are budgeted for.
The Minister said that government always anticipates where President Lungu is likely to travel when formulating the national budget.
And on the Turkey trip that generated criticism, President Edgar Lungu said that his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan was desirous to enhancing bilateral relations between Zambia and Turkey.
President Lungu disclosed that President Erdogan informed him when the two leaders held a high-level bilateral meeting.
President Lungu further stated that his Turkish counterpart was committed towards improving diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries.
The President stated that Mr. Erdogan has promised to visit Zambia soon.
“Well from us from Zambia being part of the invited guests, I think we have learnt a lot. We want to see how we can enhance our bilateral cooperation between Zambia and Turkey,” President Lungu said.
He said he was happy that the ministers and other officials in his delegation held fruitful meetings with the Turkish private sector who showed interest in investing in Zambia.
“We are already working with some of the private partners like in the energy sector. I have said in the past quoting some scholars who have said that there is no finishing line to development. I think mankind keeps developing. So in tourism, Turkey has done very well,” President Lungu said.
He said Zambia’s tourism and agriculture sectors are on the right development trajectory and it is through cooperation with countries like Turkey that they can record more growth.
“We are talking of value addition in Zambia, and I think that time is gone when African countries thrived by exporting raw materials and we want to export finished products and we can only do so if we industrialise our economies,” he said.
He pointed out that Zambia could learn from Turkey’s advanced agricultural practices such as agro-processing and value addition in order for the country to export finished products as opposed to raw goods.
Mr. Lungu disclosed that government has added a new dimension to economic diplomacy by ensuring ministers include businessmen in their delegations to explore possible public private partnerships (PPP).
“So I think that it will not be ministerial trips anymore it will be business trips, ministers accompanied by businessmen visiting to see how they can cooperate in public private partnerships.
“And I think criticism will always be there , come to think of it, every time the President goes out of the country there is a lot of talk but I think that it is worth it,” President Lungu said.
This is what you voted for Zambians.
Lungu will bleed this country dry. Things will get a lot worse.
God help Zambia quickly.
Dora wabe ich
What the hell does he think he is…the Rat of all Rats…the country is broke how hard is that to comprehend. Banana Republic…
Next door President John Magufuli of Tanzania has only been to Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia since being elected president, and just this week he delivered a dreamliner jet for his people. Tanzania’s economy is growing at 6 times more than the Zambian economy. Can the clueless PF cadres tell us what is going on here with their visionless and clueless Edgar?
@Dora, muzadabwa imwe. You will also lose weight if you do not cushion yourself now. Wait and see.
These empty tins don’t even know what austerity measures are…for them its just something you put on paper to show IMF and China that we announced this in the press.
Do as i say, not as I do. Sure-sure, do u think Lazy Bums Vasco Da lungu can stop traveling?
He’s such a disgrace to our country. He’s seen off at the airport by entire Zambian cabinet, army generals & thousands of dancing brainwashed PF00Lish cadres BUT welcomed at airports by junior officers in the country he’s visiting coz no country takes him seriously. What a clown. What a loser.
Animo Farm will NOT dictate as what the president can and can’t do! Go tell your chronic loser what he must and not do! He is the President of everybody including Halosers!
Nose demon doing what is expected of every demon.
NOW MISS SILIYA THAT IS A SILLY ASSERTION.
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Let the president work from within the country. It’s propestorus to claim that even when our economy is hurting the president should continue accruing allowances. I hated Kalaba for ill-advising ECL on trips. He would have circled the world a 1000 times had Kalaba been on board Cabinet. With his reduced trips, Zambia has not missed a single international opportunity.
So much hogwash from Dora and her clueless boss. Can you imagine this? Magufuli travels outside the country far less than clueless Lungu does. And yet Tanzania is doing far much better than Zambia in terms of development. Private business people are supposed to fund their own private trips, and should not be using public funds to go solicit business opportunities outside the country. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what wasteful spending and corruption looks like. He goes out with a huge delegation, mainly for tourism and partying. We know what’s happening. We aren’t that stup1d. Stop wasting our meager resources you corrupt gang.
Let the High Commissioners/Ambassadors do their jobs. That is exactly why they are there!
They are going to give away the country’s natural resources that’s why that lazy thing has sent them there!!
Indeni will be used as leverage and other national assets …watch this space….we will all pay for these empty tin’s recklessness who are not sontaling anymore!!
You can’t run a country on fantasy and illusion. Time will catch with you, up to now we have not seen any return on investing in trips apart from personal properties and suits.
The Tanzanian president has never travelled outside the continent, its them comming to TZ. African presidents should stop this habit of begging/travelling around the world asking the whites to come and develop their countries. We have our own minds and we can make it.
Besta, well said… Zambia has the capacity to develop but as long as we keep depending on others to develop our own land then we have a problem yes we need investors but for how long are we going to be knocking and every door asking for help. China 60 YEARS ago was in poverty but now with a population of 1.3 billion people have enough to even feed other countries. We have to change, we need to change.
Tanzania president is useless, he is scared of flying.
No one has seen anything Mangufuli has done.
Nostradamus – just because you haven’t seen what he has done dont assume everyone is as ignorant as you are!!
Nostradamus stop it, go to Tanzania and experience development for yourself. Addressing a congregation at the University of Dar es Salaam main campus.
Professor Lumumba said it’s delightful when an African leader stands against Western rulers to defend the interest of Africans, something that other leaders should follow.
“President Magufuli is a breath of fresh air. If he continues with this mode of leadership, Tanzania is likely to be the greatest economy in Africa in the next 10 years,” he said.
Prof Lumumba remarks come just a day after Barrick Gold Chairman John Thornton flew to Tanzania and met the President at the State House, on the mineral concentrates saga.
Even the money he is using for procuring new aircraft Boeing Dream-liner for Air Tanzania is coming directly from the mines the money would have been stolen if it was in Zambia. That’s the money mines had stolen and are paying back…although I dont support him investing in airline.
Nostradamus..I didn’t know you were such a huge id1ot. You don’t know that Tanzania is developing faster than Zambia? You’re indeed empty headed.
OH….I WISH THE PRESIDENT COULD TRAVEL EVEN MORE. HE NEEDS TO CORRECT THE BAD PUBLICITY THAT THE OPPOSITION DID. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE TALKING ARE THE SAME ONES WHO COMPLAINED THAT SATA WAS NOT TRAVELLING OUTSIDE. THESE ARE PEOPLE WHO SPEAK WITH FORKED TONGUES AND FULL OF JEALOUSY AND ENVY.
Dull one, you think ambassadors here do not follow local politics and report back to their countries? I think other governments would rather believe their ambassadors than this dull clueless president of yours when he travels. Grow a brain ba PF please.
So you mean the ambassadors living in Zambia representing the countries Mr. No Vision wants to visit have no idea what is happening in local politics? How old are you?
“Mr. Lungu disclosed that government has added a new dimension to economic diplomacy by ensuring ministers include businessmen in their delegations..” The delegations just got bigger….friends, relatives and beloved cadres on tax payers coin…
The president should change his name,indeed their is power in a name,Chagwa is too consistent with the trajectory that his leadership style is taking,or shall he wait till he finally falls before doing a Deed Poll?
“….each trip President Lungu makes abroad is about the country and not about him as an individual….”
Why was he and ka chanda reciving land gifts in swaziland ?
And why was he in Kenya in a private visit just as the austerity measures were being announced oh! and whu did he charter a private jet to go to Turkey for a mere inauguration ceremony????
Shameless
The time when the so called austerity measures were being introduced the president was leaving for Kenya on what he called a private visit,the first lady travelled to England like on the same day to collect second hand sewing machines while and the following day newspapers were awash with pictures of Amos and Dora hugging in China,Chagwa aza gwa……carefull baba
I thought footballers and musicians are the ones who have the luxury of chartering jets using their hard earned money. Now we have a president, tax payers money for medicine. God help us!
Learning from other countries my foot! We have been learning from other countries for more than 50 years of independence.We ‘ve got thousands of degree and masters degree holders in this country who can simply put their heads together and develop this country. We know that there’s always money for Presidential trips and brand new vehicles for government officials while a poor civil servant only gets a salary increment every 3 years and maybe only an increment of K100,in the meantime the cost of living rises almost everyday. What a heartless regime!!
I like your message,the only dissapointment is that you sympathise with the useless civil servants.PF did not usurp power,people with their eyes wide open walked into voting booths and voted for people who had already told them that they are clueless.In fact it is good that this is happening it is the only way they will learn to assess the people clamoring for votes.
The other people i can never feel sorry for are the cadres PF is using for violence,let them continue praying for Bye Elections.
dora the explorer
That is the Zambia I know government fights its own people and common sense is not present in the rhetoric of government ministers. 100% correlation with why this country is broke, in poverty and completely a waste of human and natural resources.
That is the Zambia I know government fights its own people and common sense is not present in the rhetoric of government ministers. 100% correlation with why this country is broke, in poverty and completely a waste of human and natural resources.
But the president himself had said he won’t travel for the whole of this year.how about that madam Dora.
Its not his fault. He was invited!!How could he say no!! Erdogan is a white man remember!!
Erdogan is not White but asian muslim
By the way, stop bull####ting the people about learning, anyone who has learnt anything in life or has been in class knows that you cannot learn and later on do anything with what you see for a few hours in front of cameras.
Learning what from dictators how to oppress and lock up citizens.
For a moment, i wondered who it was in the pic, she doesn’t look the same anymore
Looks strange this foto of Dora – almost not humanlike!!? Now How real is this kind of learning our leaders keep on talking about? I don’t get it at all when we have abundance of educated and highly experienced nationals who have worked in renowned organisations the world over. Our leaders would do better by learning from their own qualified people if they had the will to do so. This kind of talk 50 years after independence shows clearly that there is no seriousness to national development. When will we ever learn?????
Do you take an inventory of benefits that are derived from these trips?You need to make a cost -benefit analysis in order to get the best out of these analysis.I do not think acquisition of land,for personal benefit,will add value to the nation.
Austerity measures should apply to every one including the president.President of Tanzania,Magufulu,is a person to emulate where prudent management of national resources is concerned.He has a heart for the nation.Presidential aggrandizement is costing this national dearly.Certain trips that the president is making are wasteful trips.Trips like,Muswati admiring naked young girls,are not beneficial to the nation.
Lungu is a forged president,period.
HH benefited from the words, “ONLY A TONGA CAN BE PRESIDENT OF UPND. UPND IS FOR TONGAS.”
Sharon, are you on Lungu’s delegation too? And why do you always assume that people who’re critical of Lungu automatically support HH and UPND? I too think HH is tribalistic and needs to allow others in his party to challenge him for party leadership. So not everyone supports HH, just because they’re critical of corrupt clueless Lungu. Please remember that.
HaTribes is Horganised Crime.
President Lungu needs someone who is astute to speak on his behalf. Someone that can talk like the president of the green party Peter Sinkamba when not on Marijuana. Minister Dora Siliya only speaks whats in her mind, and with an MMD mannerism.
Lets learn manners, talk sense ,encouraged on doing something for yourselves.
Dora must do something about her obesity otherwise she will sooner than later sponteneously explode like a “kanyikuta”. Further, why does she always done prostitute hair styles? Are these the prsents Mupalaba is bringing her from Lubumbashi in Katanga where he hails from? State coffers are literally dry and Lungu must cut down on his useless expensive trips. It’s the I dont care atitude like that which led to the overthrowal of Krumah, Obote and Nimeiri. Lungu must be very careful and if I were Dora, I would just shut up because when the takeover happens like in Zimbabwe, its the likes of Dora that will be targeted for punishment. The probability is that Lungu will be sampling whisky on the verandah of his eSwatini mansion in Mbabane with his reedmat queen rubbing his bollocks joyously.
Kamwendo munjila, I see a revolution happening in Zambia when the poor masses are tired of being ignored.