Green Economy and Environment Minister Hon. Eng. Collins Nzovu, MP, has called for close bilateral relations between Zambia and China in the areas of forestry development and management, green economy and climate change, meteorological and weather services, environmental protection and management, and capacity building.

The Minister was speaking when the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Zambia, His Excellency Mr. Li Jie paid a virtual courtesy call on him today.

Mr. Nzovu said the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment would like to learn from China’s development experience and is willing to create a favourable environment for mutually beneficial cooperation.

“The ministry would like to propose the following areas of further cooperation: Forestry development and management, and further facilitate value addition to timber products and honey and beeswax; green economy and climate change …to promote climate resilience and green economy practices through investments in low carbon and resilience efficient economic activities,” Mr. Nzovu said.

“Meteorological and weather services …focusing on producing and disseminating weather and climatic information to the aviation, agriculture and other sectors in order to facilitate informed decision making; environmental protection and management. We can learn from China on solid waste management and other issues to protect the environment.”

Mr. Nzovu appealed for support in capacity building of the Ministry’s internal staff in the leadership program, qualification improvement at degree and postgraduate level, and other capacities.

“The Ministry would also appreciate support in the area of capacity building for internal staff in smart and sustainable agriculture; climate change mitigation and adaption; training in forest management; environmental management; human resource management and governance; training in policy development; training in meteorology and climatology,” Mr. Nzovu said.

The Minsiter expressed gratitude to the Government of China for the longstanding bilateral ties with Zambia and its continued to support at bilateral and multilateral level.

“Let me take this opportunity to ride on the fruitful meeting you had with the President Mr. Hakainde Hichilema were the Chinese Government assured the President of working with Zambia’s New Government to lift bilateral cooperation in various fields to a new level, benefiting the two countries,” said Mr. Nzovu.

The Minister called for cooperation on aforestration, carbon trading, conservation farming, protection of forestry, reducing deforestration, reducing greenhouse gas emission, promotion of renewable energy, and protection against pollution, and support to Zambia’s small scale entreprenuers, among other areas of mutual interests.

And Chinese Ambassador Mr. Li commended President Hichilema and his Government and pledged to further strengthen the ties between China and Zambia.

The Ambassador assured Mr. Nzovu of the Chinese Government’s willingness to widen cooperation with the new Ministry in the five areas that the Minister had highlighted, including wildlife protection and combating illegal trade in wildlife.

Ambassador Li said China was committed to the Paris Agreement, combating climate change, pollution and environmental degradation.
In the face of COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese Ambassador donated 10, 000 surgical masks to the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment for use by members of staff at Headquarters and in provinces.

Responding to the Minister’s concerns about the country’s debt burden and calling for China’s possible intervention, Ambassador Li said the debt challenges that Zambia was facing were a temporal difficulty in the country’s process of development. He said there were positive signs that the debt burden was being resolved.

The Chinese envoy was of the view that with the gradual development of Zambia’s economy, the debt issue will be resolved.

Ambassador Li assured that China will support Zambia in the latter’s engagements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its quest to come out of the debt challenges.

Ambassador Li also said China has one of the largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Zambia. The Ambassador said China will continue to encourage investment in the future to be in the green economy and encourage sustainable development.

Special Advisor to the President on COVID-19, Roma Chilengi has aid that the severity of the Coronavirus has the potential to wipe out a population if preventive measures such as vaccination exercises are not undertaken.

Speaking during a media engagement meeting in Chinsali district – Muchinga Province today, Professor Chilengi said there is need to improve the COVID-19 vaccination drive through thorough sensitization of the masses.

He has since called for intensified approach towards the fight against COVID-19 amid the emergence of the fourth wave to avoid measures such as lockdowns that have a negative effect on the economy.

Professor Chilengi however said the government has no plans to put the country on lockdown amid the fourth wave.

He also implored the media to play a leading role in discouraging the myths and misconceptions on COVID-19 through their various platforms.

And, Muchinga Province Deputy Permanent Secretary, Jonathan Ng’onga urged the media to uphold utmost professionalism while reporting on COVID-19 as they are important frontline workers in the vaccination drive.

Mr. Ng’onga further called on all Journalists to take the step by getting vaccinated as frontline workers.

Meanwhile, Muchinga Province Health Director Nero Chilembo said the interventions to improve the vaccination drive in the province are recording good results so far.

Dr. Chilembo said the positive outcome in the increase of the vaccination exercise is attributed to the collaborative efforts by various stakeholders such as the media.

The Ministry of Health in Muchinga province targets to vaccinate about 30 percent of people before the end of this year.

Meanwhile, Chief Mubanga of the Bemba people of Chinsali in Muchinga Province has urged fellow traditional leaders to support Government’s efforts to accelerate the COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Chief Mubanga said that traditional leaders are important stakeholders in the fight against the pandemic in their various chiefdoms.

Speaking during a media engagement meeting on COVID-19 in Chinsali District today, Chief Mubanga said traditional leaders in various chiefdoms should encourage their people to get vaccinated to reduce on the number of infections in the country.

He said it is disheartening that Muchinga Province has since last year lost 5 traditional leaders due to the disease.

Chief Mubanga said from the chiefs that Muchinga has lost due to COVID 19 in the recent past, two of them are his own blood brothers saying he personally feels the impact and effect that the disease has on humanity.

The Chief further stated that the strategy by the Ministry of Health in the province to increase on their outreach vaccination programmes is a welcome move.

And Chinsali Mayor Lucy Mukuka said the local authority is also working on a strategy to encourage the business community to get vaccinated.

The Bus and Taxi Owners Association of Zambia (BTOAZ) is today expected to announce new fares, following the new fuel prices announced this week,

In a statement made available to the media, BTOAZ national spokesperson Amis Daudi said the decision to announce the new fares follows a consultative meeting with the government through the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA).

He said this is in line with the established consultative procedure in effecting adjustments to the bus and taxi fares in the country.

Mr Daudi has since appealed to all public passenger transporters to be patient and accommodative to allow the consultative process to end before implementing new bus and taxi fares.

“The BTOAZ remains committed to the promotion and delivery of a safer, convenient, and efficient public passenger,” he said.

This weekend other transport operators on some copperbelt towns already increased fares following Fuel and Petrol increments on Friday last week by the Energy Regulation Board announced new fuel prices with effect from December 17, this year.

Last week government, through ERB, increased the price of fuel after removing subsidies on petroleum products to reflect the correct price of the commodity.

The pump price of petrol was increased to K21.16 kwacha per litre from 17.62 per litre while diesel price rose to 20.15 kwacha per litre from 15.59 per litre, the Energy Regulation Board said in a statement.

“This is following the announcement by the government that fuel subsidies will be removed so as to migrate to cost-reflective pricing,” ERB said.

The current pump prices have been kept artificially low since December 2019 despite movements in international oil prices and depreciation of the kwacha, the regulator said.

Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said earlier this month that an International Monetary Fund programme to try to get the country’s global debt mountain back under control would include removing unsustainable subsidies on energy and agriculture.

Dr Musokotwane said Zambia was committed to bringing debt to sustainable levels, but that the removal of subsidies would mean price increases, something which has already proved politically contentious.

“The increase is going to come, because as a country we overborrowed,” Dr Musokotwane said had warned Zambians.

Dr Musokotwane said that Zambia still needs to win final approval from the IMF board, having announced a staff-level deal on Dec. 3. In a bid to secure the deal, he is implementing unpopular reforms including cuts to fuel and power subsidies. He’s also engaged creditors to restructure about $16 billion in external debt with formal negotiations due to start in the second quarter.

IMF Zambia mission chief Allison Holland said more details would be given once the programme was approved by the board, adding that reducing the fiscal deficit and removing inefficient subsidies, which Zambia has on power, fuel and farming, were key goals of the programme.

Holland said a greater proportion of spending on health and education was also key, which Musokotwane said would be achieved with money saved on the subsidies.

Non-discretionary subsidies on the consumption of fuel in particular are seen by economists as a wasteful use of state resources.

“When you freeze the (price of the) product, you are merely postponing the problem,” Musokotwane said. “Today we are sitting on unpaid bills for petroleum products of $480 million.”