By KAIKO NAMUSA –

SCOTLAND has announced plans to send a team of medical experts to Zambia to assess critical areas of need where that country can render technical and financial assistance.
This is aimed at improving Zambia’s primary healthcare delivery.
Scotland Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing Alex Neil said this in response to a request by Vice-President Guy Scott, who outlined the efforts Zambia was making to accelerate the improvement of healthcare delivery to the underprivileged.
The two dignitaries held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, which the Queen of England officially opened on Wednesday evening at a colourful ceremony at Celtic Park.
This is contained in a statement issued yesterday by Press Secretary at Zambia’s High Commission in London, Amos Chanda.
“We may not have all the resources but we do have exceptional expertise in the field of medicine and health sector in general and we will be happy to send a team of experts to Zambia to explore the areas where we will assist,” Mr Neil said. “We will be happy to send this team before the end of the year.”
Mr Neil said his office would make arrangements with the Zambian High Commission in London to arrange the experts’ visit and plan the necessary meetings with relevant authorities in the Ministry of Health.
Dr Scott said to improve healthcare delivery, the Zambian Government had spread the health mandate across three ministries, namely, Health, Community Development and Local Government.
Speaking at the ‘Sustainable Trade & Investment Conference’ hosted by the Scottish government at the Royal College of Surgeons in Glasgow yesterday, Dr Scott also called for richer countries and investors to provide the kind of investment that did not constrain access to future earnings.
“The whole issue of increased aid and trade has to do with investors seeking only short-term investments,” Dr Scott said. “This deprives poor countries of future earnings, we need reasonable access to future earnings and our people need access to affordable credit.”
The Vice-President regretted that the change in the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC)’s operating model from long-term to short-term approaches had impacted negatively on Zambia and other African countries, where the multinationals invested.
Delivering a keynote address to the conference, United Kingdom (UK) Minister for International Development, Lynn Featherstone, said the UK was stepping up its influence in international development to lobby for improved market access for poor countries.
“Our strategy is to help increase trade to fight poverty. In all this, market access is extremely important. We support fully the European Union preferential market access arrangements it promotes for many developing countries,” Ms Featherstone said.
Dr Scott was accompanied by Zambia’s High Commissioner to the UK, Paul Lumbi, senior private secretary Robert Kamalata and Sharon Sichilongo from the Zambia Development Agency.