. SATA

By KAIKO NAMUSA –
PRESIDENT Michael Sata yesterday officially opened the fourth session of the 11th National Assembly and sounded optimistic of the country registering further positive economic gains in 2015.
The President said this was on the premise that the country had continued to post robust economic expansion in excess of six per cent since the ruling party assumed office in 2011.
Mr Sata said US$5.2 billion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) had been attracted in the country so far and this was a sign that Zambia was an attractive investment destination around the globe.
President Sata said the focus would be to achieve the necessary rates of economic growth and development and this would be done by addressing issues of higher rates of investment, job creation and economic restructuring.
President Sata said meaningful economic transformation was fundamental to collective prosperity as a nation and reiterated the Government’s stance to move the country decisively towards the eradication of poverty and underdevelopment.
“Zambia has posted strong indicators of progress in the political, economic and social spheres under the leadership of the PF Government,” Mr Sara said.
“These achievements have been made possible because of enduring unity, peace and stability. For this, we must be thankful to the Almighty God.”
He said that Minister of Finance, Alexander Chikwanda would in two weeks’ time unveil the 2015 National Budget, which would highlight the performance of the economy in relation to both regional and international developments and indicate how these had impacted on the standard of living of the Zambians.
In this vein, the President urged members of Parliament to support the National Budget.
He said to increase fiscal space for infrastructure development, the Government approved the transfer of functions of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) unit to the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) to facilitate the merger of the two institutions.
He has since directed the Minister of Finance and his Commerce, Trade and Industry counterpart, Bob Sichinga to realise the merger in order to optimally use PPP to attract investment in infrastructure projects as a means of promote economic development.
In agriculture, Mr Sata said the Government had invested a total of K108.5 million to upgrade 27 storage sheds with a storage capacity of 117, 000 metric tonnes, as he restated commitment to uphold the sector as a key mover of poverty eradication and economic growth.
He said the crop sub-sector had continued to register significant growth and had this year recorded a record maize harvest of 3.4 million tonnes owing to favourable policies, commitment by the farmers and good weather.
Mr Sata said this year, 7,000 hectares of land had been brought under irrigation, bringing the total to 11,500 hectares and directed the Ministry of Agriculture to cover the remaining 6,000 hectares before the end of next year.
17, 500 hectares was targeted to be set aside for irrigation farming for the small and medium-scale farmers by 2016.
On job creation, the President said 456,539 jobs had been created in the formal sector since 2011 while in the construction sector, 93,487 jobs had been established and directed that 20 per cent sub-contracting and job creation for locals should be part of the evaluation criteria for award of all contracts.
He said the Industrial Development Corporation had been established to oversee and manage the Sate-owned enterprises, as well as compliment private sector investment in strategic areas.
“I wish to direct the Secretary to the Cabinet to operationalise the Corporation and ensure that the State-owned enterprises list on the stock exchange to improve their operations and capital base,” he said.
On exports, President Sata directed the minister of Commerce to improve the country’s export performance, focusing on services and manufactured goods, stating that Non-Traditional Exports now accounted for 33 per cent of total export earnings from 20.9 per cent in 2011.
On the Link-Zambia 8,000 project, Mr Sata said the project was progressing well and that as of July this year, 22 work contracts had been signed covering 2,245 kilometres of roads and directed the ministries of Transport and Finance to speed up the construction of roads under the project.
He added that the mining sector was another key area to boost job creation and foreign exchange earnings and, to this effect, directives had been issued to the ministries of Mines and Finance to come up with consistent policies that would guarantee transparency and accountability in the declaration of minerals produced and exported.
“We need to ensure a win-win situation for both the nation and mining investors,” he said.