Zambia and Nigeria have agreed to strengthen bilateral relations in order to accelerate economic growth of the two countries.

Briefing the press soon after a closed door meeting held in Abuja this afternoon, President, Rupiah Banda, and his Nigerian counterpart, Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua acknowledged the need to coexist in the face of eminent global economic meltdown.

President Banda said a delegation of Nigerian business experts would, hence, visit Zambia to discuss agreements in various sectors of the Zambian economy, a development that could help reduce the country’s dependence on mining, which was yielding low profits due to declining Copper prices on the global market.

Mr Banda said he was proud that Nigeria was one of the few African countries that have invested in Zambia.

He expressed happiness that Access Bank of Nigeria has declared interest to open a branch in Zambia, a development that would significantly contribute to the growth of a viable financial sector in the country.

He was confident that more financial institutions from Nigeria would penetrate the Zambian financial market.

Mr. Banda also revealed that a major Nigerian cement manufacturing company had agreed to open a plant in Zambia.

Mr Banda also told journalists that Nigeria has agreed to help Zambia achieve crop diversification in agriculture by encouraging production cocoa and palm oil among other crops..

President Banda said he opted to commence his tour of duty with Nigeria because the west African country was among frontline states that immensely contributed to rhe liberation struggle of the African continent.

Mr Banda said Zambia was fortunate to have Nigeria as a partner in economic development.

“We have seen that your financial sector has established itself as one of the best financial sectors in Africa and your banks are recognised world-wide as some of those properly regulated and with the capacity to grow and help us. That’s one other reason we chose to come here first,” he said.

And Nigeria’s President, Umaru Musa Yar Adua, said the visit of President Banda, came at a time when more efforts were need by world leaders to discuss economic challenges that currently threaten the welfare of the peoples.

Mr Yar’Adua added that apart from economic development, he and president Banda discussed the socio-political situation in Africa, particularly that of Zimbabwe.

Mr Yar’Adua regretted the deteriorating humanitarian crisis that has led to a seemingly breakdown of negotiations in terms of implementation of the agreement in Zimbabwe.

He, however, said he was optimistic that one day the problems in Zimbabwe would be a thing of the past, adding that the Southern African Community, SADC, which was mandated by the African Union, AU, has made tremendous progress in trying to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe.

He said SADC and AU should still be commended for having managed to broker the deal that resulted in the signing of a power-sharing agreement between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, which brought peace to that country.

President Yar’Adua, regretted that failure by the two parties to implement the agreement, adding that the issue stands on the disagreement on who should control sensitive ministries.

President Banda is this afternoon expected to return home.

ZANIS/ENDS/EB/SJK

The Unemployment Association of Zambia (UAZ) says statutory regulation of the media is detrimental to Zambia’s budding democracy.

Association president Mpundu Mwanamwelwa told ZANIS in Lusaka today that there is need for Press Freedom if democracy is to flourish in country.

Mr. Mwanamwelwa said statutory regulation would inhibit journalists and restrict the free flow of information.

He said impeding the media to carry out their set mandate would be to the detriment of the country as the role of the press as a watch-dog would be defeated.

Mr. Mwanamwelwa further said economic achievement and true democracy are elements that can not survive without divergence views which are brought forward through the media.

Mr. Mwanamwelwa said statutory regulation of the media would bar divergent views from being heard.

He said this scenario would impact negatively on the promotion of good governance and the fight against bad vices such as corruption.

Mr. Mwanamwelwa has since urged the public to condemn efforts aimed at bringing about statutory regulation of the media.

Government has said that media houses in the country have failed to regulate themselves and this had prompted the calls from various stakeholders for statutory regulation.

Chief Government spokesperson, Ronnie Shikapwasha has said that the failure by the media to regulate themselves was blatantly exhibited in the period running to the October 30 presidential election.

He challenged the Media Council of Zambia (MECOZ), Press Association of Zambia (PAZA), Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and the Zambia Union of Journalists (ZUJ), among others, to prove that the media could regulate themselves.

Recently, members of Parliament (MPs) and the Government called for statutory regulation of the media following what they termed as unprofessional reporting in the period of campaigning for the October 30 polls.

On Monday, media bodies rejected calls by the Government for statutory regulation, saying the decision was misplaced and made out of emotions.

ENDS/VP/AM/ZANIS

North-Western Province Permanent Secretary, Jeston Mulando, has called for extensive capacity building in local authorities to enable them effectively implement the planning system.

Mr Mulando said consultations on the review of special planning registration in Zambia, revealed that there are a lot of capacity gaps at lower levels within the planning system.

He said for instance, there are too few planning inspectors and land administrators.

Mr Mulando said this in a speech read for him by his Deputy, Nkolola Hazemba, during a one-day provincial stakeholder consultative forum on the draft regional and urban Planning Bill in Solwezi today.

He, however, said it was gratifying to note that the proposed legislation tries to strike a balance between creating a system that could be implemented now by the current capacity, whilst ensuring that officials and other stakeholders strive to improve that capacity in the future.

Mr Mulando, further, noted that the application of the town and country planning Act is more biased to state owned land excluding customary tenure.

He said such a biased state of affairs has resulted into a lopsided nature of development in the country with state land which constituted only six percent of the land in the country receiving more development focus and investments at the expense of the rural areas.

Mr. Mulando said as a result the draft bill has a provision proposing for harmonising the role of both government and the traditional leaders in dealing with development in rural areas.

ZANIS/WEN/EML/ENDS/SJK

President, Rupiah Banda, has arrived in Abuja, Nigeria for a two-day official visit.

President Banda touched down at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport at 17 hours local time.

He is accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister, Kabinga Pande and his counterpart at Energy and Water Affairs Minister, Kenneth Konga, and some other senior government officials .

The President was welcomed by Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister, Ojo Maduekwem, Zambian High Commissioner to that country Godfrey Musonda, his deputy, Richard Kachingwe, and Zambians living in Nigeria.

President Banda is tomorrow expected to hold private talks with his Nigerian counterpart President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua before returning to Lusaka in the afternoon.

President Banda’s visit to Nigeria has raised expectations of strengthening bilateral ties for the economic and social development of the two countries.

Zambian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Godfrey Musonda, yesterday held that President Banda has shown determination to use bilateral relations existing between Zambian and Nigeria to attract more investment from west Africa for the economic benefit of the national economy.

Mr Musonda indicated that Nigerian financial institutions, among them the Access Bank, UBA and Eco Bank have since negotiated to open business in Zambia, adding that more potential investors have expressed intetrest to work with Zambian businesses in various economic development programmes.