Zambia’s economic rating timely
Published On January 29, 2018 » 3218 Views» By Evans Musenya Manda » Opinion
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Vince Lombardi, who was an American football player, coach and executive in the National Football League famously, said the dictionary is the only place where success comes before work adding that work was the key to success since it can help you accomplish anything.
This applies to the recent London-based International Ratings Agency Moody’s, an international economic watchdog that has rated Zambia as being economically stable and on the right developmental track.
Zambians (including arm-chair critics and pessimists) must admit that this has not come about like manna from heaven since President Edgar Lungu has put deliberate measures to turn around the economy positively.
Under Lungu’s leadership, infrastructural projects have been radically implemented changing the faces of cities, townships and rural areas.
This has created an enabling environment for effecting developmental projects since without infrastructure, development can only remain a pipedream.
Another noticeable early achievement is that the President resolved the royalty tax and VAT rule 18 impasse with the mines which saved over 5,000 jobs.
And as Finance Minister Felix Mutati observed the rating was not only an important indicator of the international community’s discernment of Zambia’s political, social and economic stability but also an endorsement of the country’s consistent and market-friendly development policies.
Surely the rating was based on, among other considerations, the critical reforms which the Government has embarked on under the Economic Stabilisation and Growth Programme to implement fiscal consolidation, removal of subsidies, reformation of the energy sector, and diversification of the economy through agriculture, tourism, and industrialisation.
We feel the assessment conducted by Moody’s is welcome since it is coming at a time when a cadre of prophets of doom hailing from the opposition, self-styled economists and detractors all who have deafened our ears with unfounded criticism.
However, since most of the critics are locals with hidden agenda, we should bank on the rating by Moody since the latter is independent and unbiased.
Here we can quote Colin Powell, the American elder statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army who once said a dream doesn’t become reality through magic but is achieved through sweat, determination and hard work.

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