By CHILA NAMAIKO –
GERMAN Ambassador to Zambia Achim Burkart has said his government will continue contributing to the overarching goal of supporting Zambia’s development and the property of its people through improved livelihood.
Mr Burkart said his country had a strong interest in supporting Zambia to systematically follow a path of good governance, transparency and accountability  to overcome poverty, foster development, create more jobs and to bridge inequalities.
“We strongly believe that the Zambian Parliament is playing a key role to this end. The work and the control function of Parliament is vital building block of checks and balances in each and every democratic system worldwide, “he said.
Mr Burkart said this yesterday when he and Speaker of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini officially launched the Parliament television studio at Parliament Buildings under a programme dubbed ‘Strengthening Parliamentary Control in Zambia project’.
The project is supported by Germany government of which three components had been implemented with a total volume of about K50 million.
Mr Burkart was confident the launch would strengthen transparency of
Parliamentary work as well as its control function through development of Parliamentary radio and a Parliamentary television.
With support of German Development Cooperation, the new television studio compromised HD cameras, a video server, a complete archive system with media management, a teleprompter and new cabling valued at k6.7 million including installation and training of parliament staff.
He said for the radio components, nine sites countrywide were equipped
with transmitters including servers at a value of K6.5 million.
Dr Matibini said the Parliament television development had increased visibility of the National Assembly, and was contributing towards heightening awareness on the business of Parliament in relation to its core functions.
The Speaker said such development would provide an opportunity to update the general public on Parliamentary activities while creating demand for them to participate in the business of the House.
In order to sustain the gains achieved so far, he said it was imperative that the strengthening Parliamentary control in Zambia project was scaled-up to achieve among key factors, decentralisation of the work of the National Assembly to constituency level.