. Nkhoma
By CASSEY KAYULA
A LOCAL economist has said Government should focus on promoting industrialisation rather than shopping malls to promote economic development in the country,
The country has seen a number of shopping malls being constructed in several parts of the country.
Noel Nkhoma advised Government against focusing on constructing shopping malls most of which are owned by foreign investors as opposed to promoting industrialisation.
“As a country we are promoting trading but not promoting industrialisation, the government needs to focus more on investing in industrialisation projects,” Mr Nkhoma said.
He said in an interview that while there were a lot of positive things that came with shopping malls among them job creation, investment opportunities, it was important to establish what detriment they had caused on local businesses in the country.
“The little shops in the locations seem to be slowly disappearing because everybody is going into shopping malls and these are mostly owned by foreigners,” he said.
Mr Nkhoma said shopping malls would lead to decline in the local shops and other small scale businesses in the country.
He said there was a lot of new consumer demand that would see the number of shopping mall rising, while the increase in these large-scale outlets might be celebrated but had a negative effect.
