Finance Minister Bwalya Ng’andu has challenged the Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ) to use the Economic Summit as a platform of prescribing solutions that will help the country overcome some of the economic challenges.
Speaking when he addressed delegates at the Economic Summit in Livingstone today, Dr Ng’andu expressed sadness that despite having very good policies, implementation has remained a challenge in Zambia.
He said this trend needs to be reversed for the country to get its economy back on a positive growth trajectory.
Dr Ng’andu challenged all delegates attending the summit to identify strategies that can be vigorously implemented in order to change the country’s economic landscape.
He said Zambia’s sluggish economic growth has been aggravated by the negative impact of climate change, with poor rains experienced in the Southern part of the country, resulting in poor agriculture yield and low water levels in dams that service the country’s power generation stations.
Dr Ng’andu said the other challenge is declining fiscal space because most of the resources are going towards debt servicing.
The Finance Minister disclosed that as a consequence of these developments, Zambia’s annual economic growth for 2019 is estimated to be 2.5 percent against the initially projected 4 percent.
He pointed out that areas that need strategizing for economic growth are debt sustained, improvement of support to Small and Medium Enterprises and the private sector, revenue collection and support to the social sector.
Dr Ng’andu said the economic summit is therefore being held at an opportune time when the country is in dire need of economic solutions.
He said he has the mammoth task of reducing imbalances in the economy in the shortest possible time and appealed to stakeholders to work closely with him in addressing challenges associated with climate change, improve liquidity in the country as well as expand the revenue base.
The Minister urged all delegates to also bring to government’s attention, areas that they feel need to be addressed by government.
I personally have observed that solutions abound everywhere. What we lack are competent managers to effect solutions they generate and even copy.We are good at implementing solutions at individual level but at organization level, management becomes very confusing.
Cautioned??????
Dr Ng’andu said the other challenge is declining fiscal space because most of the resources are going towards debt servicing.
A a, futi so? I thought one of our leaders told us that debt is not an issue for Zambia, everything was manageable?
That youngman who spoke on debt just impressed me. Those are the youths we need in the country. Maduma l think is his name .
There’s hope in this minister – clearly described one of the major issues at hand, current debt servicing and sustainability thereof.
My sincere wish is that delinquent political forces don’t get into this approach of fixing Zambia problem.