• NATIONAL assembly of zambia

By NOAH HASSAN ABBAKER –

COME March 2016, Zambia will have received thousands of inter-parliamentary delegates and visitors from all corners of the world. The occasion marks the 134 Inter-Parliamentary Union sessions.
The Union was established in 1889 by Frederic Passy of France and William Randal Cremer of the United Kingdom. It was meant for individual parliamentarians and later transformed into parliamentary Union of States.
Today the Organization has 167 member countries with many associated regional/block parliaments. The head office of the Union is in Switzerland. The upcoming meeting is the nineth of its kind to be held in Africa as Uganda, Ethiopia, Togo, Namibia, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa and Kenya did host it.
The main role of the Union can be seen as a democracy watch where members are free to express their views on all legislations under the immunity umbrella.
No doubt that Zambia shall share its experience of 50 plus six years of parliamentary process, under the governance of law and order, with others.
The main question is that will Zambia take this opportunity to promote business and investments through Zambia Development Agency (ZDA)?
Zambia may seize the opportunity to prepare adequately for exposure the conducive investment environment it has been enjoying since independence.
This itself requires ZDA to prepare CDs and brochures, in all world major languages for take away by all delegates .This is due to the fact that almost all MPs are business oriented and could easily be attracted to Zambia.
Likewise, the Ministry of Tourism should make sure that game parks and Victoria Falls made known to the visitors. Perhaps fair chartered trips can be arranged for them to visit such tourism attractions and sites with first republican president Dr Kenneth Kaunda as special guest of honour at the meeting as he in 1990 peacefully transformed Zambia from one State party to a multi participatory democracy inline with the objectives of the Inter-Parliamentary Union policies.
Lusaka City Council should make sure that no Cholera cases are reported in the city and all garbage collected.
Business houses should decorate their shops and factories to match with the occasion as well as erect bill boards displaying their products.
Perhaps restaurants and hotels are the most beneficiaries from the event and they should concentrate, from now, on how to improve services and cuisines to accommodate foreign menus such Arab and Muslim (Halaal) food and the famous American double deck hamburger for example.
Handicrafts business should boom during the event as most visitors would like to have something unique from Zambia.
Zambia should hold mini agriculture and mines show to reflect to the visitors some products “made in Zambia”.
Although Zambia faces power supply deficit ,it is important for ZESCO to die a little bit and make sure that no there is no load shedding in the days before, during and after the events with the support of pack up generators so that the delegates and visitors go back home with something to remember.
Zambia media should seize the opportunity to sensitize government departments in particular and the general public about the benefits of the event so that each concerned department and individuals may contribute positively towards marketing Zambia.
Zambia has vast experiences in hosting international events such as
UNWTO Conference in Livingstone, COMESA head of States summits and ministerial meetings and so forth.
From the government side, there is no problem to facilitate for the event but the main concern is whether local micro and macro businesses will benefit and the country is well highlighted in terms of investment and tourism inflows.
The answer lies on the National Assembly of Zambia, as a host, to shed more light on the event.
(The Author is an interpreter at the Saudi Arabian Embassy)