Zambia and Angola will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) where a railway system will be built to directly connect the two countries’ mining towns.

This came to light when Angolan Minister of Transport and Communications Augusto da Silva Tomás held bilateral talks with his Zambian counterpart Christopher Yaluma at his office yesterday.

Mr. Tomas da Silva, who was in the country to represent Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, said his country was committed to ensuring a railway line is built soon in order to enhance trade between the two countries.

He disclosed that the two countries will also sign an MoU to create a direct link by constructing a road from Shangombo to Ruvungu in Angola.

He said once the project is in place, it will not only benefit the residents of the two towns but their countries as a whole.

And Zambian Transport and Communications Minister Christopher Yaluma said a railway would be the shortest link between Zambia and Angola.

Mr. Yaluma said the railway and road projects were key projects which need to be completed in the shortest possible time.

He said Angola was rich in oil and hence Zambia can tap this commodity from that country at a cheaper and faster rate than it was doing now.

He said there was need to create self reliance in the region because this was the only way to accelerate Africa’s development.

The Angolan Transport and Communications Minister arrived in the country yesterday to analyse matters related to the reinforcement of bilateral co-operation, mainly in the field of transport and communications.

He flew back to Angola the same day after meeting President Michael Sata and holding bilateral talks with his Zambian counterpart.

ZANIS

A financial expert says the introduction in of Statutory Instrument number 32 of 2013 has marked a return to foreign exchange controls in Zambia.

Over the weekend, Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda announced that he had signed SI 32 of 2013 aimed at monitoring balance of payment in a transparent manner.

The new law applies to financial service providers licensed under the Banking and Financial Services Act, and importers of goods or services exceeding 10,000 US dollars or the equivalent in other foreign currency.

And any person, who contravenes any provision contained in SI 32 of 2013, will be deemed to have committed an offence and is liable, upon conviction, to a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand penalty units or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten years, or to both.

But Maambo Hamaundu said although government keeps denying that Zambia has returned to forex controls, the new Statutory Instrument has effectively reintroduced forex controls in a limited fashion.

“For me whether they accept it or deny it, what we are seeing now is a return to foreign controls albeit in a limited manner,” Mr. Hamaundu said.

He said, “You have provisions in the SI that limit the cash amounts that people can withdraw from a financial services provider to US$ 5,000 per month. We never had such restrictions on cash withdraws previously and that in essence is a control.”

Mr. Hamaundu added, “Many of us did anticipate that government was by and large going to introduce some measure of foreign exchange controls and a quick glance at SI 32 shows that there are controls, they have introduced foreign exchange controls although in a limited fashion.

Mr. Hamaundu explained that the new law has also come with a lot of paperwork required to be met by all exporters of goods and services which might add to the cost of doing business.

“All those forms requiring to be filled will bring administrative challenges for most businesses,” he said.

Mr. Hamaundu has warned that the new Statutory Instrument might have long term negative effects on the Zambian economy.

He said foreign investors will opt to sit on the fence and not to commit huge financial resources in Zambia because of the new restrictions.

Zambia will not realize all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets by 2015 despite some noticeable progress that the country is achieving, Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda has said.

Mr Chikwanda said the country would not be able to fulfill the tall order of the MDGs but that Government remained committed to sustain and increase the momentum of the progress by 2015.

He said in Lusaka yesterday at the launch of the 2013 progress-report on MDGs by the United Nations (UN) that the current difficulties on the commodity prices front could stiffen realization of the goals.

“We will most likely not be able to fulfill the tall order of the MDGs by 2015 but we have made noticeable progress. Our aim is to sustain and increase the momentum of progress. With the current difficulties on the commodity prices front, the going will be quite stiff but we will fight on to better the lives of the people,” Mr Chikwanda said.

He said Zambia had struggled on many fronts in social and economic spheres to work towards attainment of MDGs but there was still a long way even with stupendous efforts of 19 months Patriotic Front (PF) administration to revise the development script in order to accelerate the development process.

Mr Chikwanda however said, the overall objective of MDGs was to accelerate development and that Government remained committed to accelerate and foster development in the country.

He said Government was committed to improving the health and educational services, water supplies in rural and urban communities, infrastructure in roads, railways and investing highly in power sector.

“If we can marshal adequate resources to invest in agriculture, we can in the medium and long term eradicate poverty,” Mr Chikwanda said.

He said the international community especially the country’s co-operating partners had spared no effort to assist Zambia and that the country would remain grateful for their generosity.

Mr Chikwanda said the growth rates being attained, no matter how embellished they were, had no meaning if unemployment and poverty especially among the young people remained intractably high.

Earlier, UN country representative Kanni Wagnaraja said Zambia was however, making progress in realizing some MDGs targets such as those related to the health sector.

She underlined the need to address growing inequalities countrywide with a call for viable reforms and investments to realize goals like MDG One on decreasing extreme poverty of 29 per cent by 2015.

On MDG One, of extreme poverty, she said poverty was decreasing at slow pace as from 58 per cent in 1991 to 42 per cent in 2010 and there was need for more investment to realize the goal target by 2015.

She said Zambia was on right path in realizing MDG Six on HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis prevalence though two young girls were infected with HIV/AIDS every two hours.

The country was further said to be progressing well on MDG Four of Child mortality, MDG Three on Gender equality and MDG Two on universal primary education.

“Zambia’s recent progress on many of the MDG targets has been encouraging, and we are heading in the right direction, although the country is still confronted by challenges that slow the overall pace of implementation.

“This is why we see the impatience often articulated by national and local leadership and civil society alike, for it is quite clear that this country can get to many more of its targets by the 2015 deadline,” Ms Wagnaraja said.

On MDG Four, she said although there was a reduction, child and maternal mortality rates were still high as about 38 mothers die each month due to complication relating to pregnancy and childbirth.

Ms Wagnaraja said the top 10 per cent of Zambians shared over half of total national income while the bottom 60 per cent shared less than 14 per cent of the total income.

The report includes provincial data and analysis using current census and Living Condition Minimum Survey (LCMS) with global data sets and institutional practices that support MDGs acceleration.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) country director Viola Morgan said the UN remained committed to supporting Zambia’s developmental agenda in areas such as ending early child marriage.

Health Minister Joseph Kasonde and his Chief and Traditional counterpart Nkandu Luo said the progress-report would give Government another insight to scrutinize failures and success of MDGs while Gender Minister Inonge Wina said her ministry would consider more empowerment projects for women.

The Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) and bus operators have drafted resolutions pertaining to proposed bus fares as a result of hiked fuel prices.

The resolutions were submitted to Works, Supply, Transport and Communications Minister Christopher Yaluma for scrutiny, after a closed door meeting on Monday evening.

Both RTSA executive director Zindaba Soko and Lusaka Capital Buses proprietor Ismail Kankhara confirmed the development in separate interviews yesterday.

Mr Soko said the Agency convened a thriving meeting with the bus operators and that the resolutions made were immediately submitted to Mr Yaluma for analysis.

“We had a good deliberation yesterday (Monday). What we did, we had to set some deliberations which were sent to the relevant minister for his attention,” Mr Soko said

He however, could not divulge details pertaining to the resolutions agreed upon with the bus operators during the meeting.

And Mr Kankhara, who described the meeting as cordial and successful, said he was impressed with the manner in which RTSA swiftly handled deliberations of the meeting.

“We resolved everything yesterday and I am happy that RTSA and us, we came up with some resolutions which were submitted to them (RTSA) and I am sure the director will in due course inform the nation,” he said The bus operators have proposed a KR1 bus increment in Lusaka following the fuel price upward adjustment last week.

Efforts to get a comment from Mr Yaluma failed by press time as his phone was switched off.

In Kitwe, bus and taxi fares for some of the intra-routes in Kitwe were yesterday raised by a margin of K200.

A check around 17:00 hours on the fare-chart for routes such as Ipusukilo and Kwacha, which initially had been pegged at K3, 300 found the charges had raised to K3, 500.

On other routes such as Chimwemwe, the fare-chart was however found pegged on the same old charges of K3, 000.

For pirate taxis, most of them on routes such as Chimwemwe and Wusakile were found to have increased the fares by a margin of K500 per person, as they were found charging K3, 500 from the previous K3, 000 respectively.

However, Bus fares for all routes in Ndola remain unchanged as public transport operators in the city have pledged to comply with the Government’s directive that changes to bus and taxi fares should only be effected once consultations with various stakeholders are concluded.

Last week, Public transport operators in the city said they would hike bus fares by at least KR 1.00 for all routes in view of the KR 1.75 upward adjustment to the prices of all petroleum products.

Ndola bus driver’s association representative Samuel Shachinongo said in an interview yesterday that bus fares for long and short distance routes in the city remained unchanged and operators had agreed to wait for Government’s feedback on the matter.

“We have already written to the Government on the issue fares and we are just waiting to get feedback from the Ministry of Transport, but as for now transport fares for all routes remain the same,” he said.

Government has engaged a South African Based Conference Organising company to be in charge of the overall organising of the 20th session of the United Nations World Tourism General Assembly (UNWTO) to be co-hosted between Zambia and Zimbabwe in August this year.

Speaking during a press briefing at Royal Sun Hotel yesterday, Minister of Tourism and Arts Ms Sylvia Masebo said government was confident that The Conference Company of South Africa would be able to competently organise the event with success.

Ms Masebo said the company will be in charge of organizing for the venue, food, accommodation, hosting of actual event as well as other side activities that would take place on the Zambian side during the global event.

She explained that her ministry was happy that the government has engaged a company with expertise in organizing mega events adding that the function of a professional conference organizer was vital in serving as focal point person to coordinate conference activities between the two countries.

“ I am elated that the company we have engaged has experience in organising mega events and I have no doubt that they will be able to successfully organize this event,” Ms Masebo said.

Ms Masebo expressed confidence that the professional conference company through collaboration with conference organizers engaged by Zimbabwe will also help to double efforts in co-hosting a successful event.

And The Conference Company Chief Executive Officer, Ms Nina Freysen Pretorius said it was a privilege to be accorded an opportunity to help in organizing the prestigious event.

“ It is a great honour and privilege for us to help in organizing the event and we look forward to working closely with the Ministry of Tourism and Art to ensure that the project is a success,” Ms Pretorius said.

She noted the co-hosting of the event between Zambia and Zimbabwe is a rare opportunity that would undoubtedly elevate the profile of the two countries and Africa as a whole.

ZANIS