Africa-Press – Zambia. President Edgar Lungu has advised Zambians not to politicise the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) for the country.
The President says the programme to recover the country’s economy is not meant for government alone but that everyone must be involved.
President Lungu has further urged everyone to put politics aside and work together to make sure that efforts being made in recovery of the economy are successful.
The President has welcomed the idea of continued dialogue with stakeholders and government on how best the programme can be achieved.
“Dialogue between the private and the public sector is what I have been calling for all along. And as we were doing our ERP we did involve a lot you stakeholder groups. This programmes are not owned by the State they are owned by all Zambians. Let’s remove politics from this thing, let’s talk about the economy and the nation,” advises the President.
Speaking when he met with a team from the Zambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ZACCI) at State House in Lusaka this morning, President Lungu said he is delighted that some are willing to meet with him and discuss best possible ways of regaining the economic situation of the country devoid of politics and that’s the way to go.
The Head of State regretted that Zambia has a lot of brilliant ideas which are not being put to good use yet other countries are benefiting from them.
“The idea of working together to implement the economic recovery programme is very good. There is nothing hidden in the document. The Problem that we have is of a pull him down syndrome. As long as it is Edgar in there u want him to fail then you go in and succeed but what u are doing you are killing people, you are killing the economy and you are killing all the prospects that you have,” the President said.
And President Lungu further emphasised the need to embrace value addition saying the country already has established markets in nearby neighbouring countries.
He said Zambia has an advantage of exporting products to other countries as the country is rightly at the hub of the region.
“We are talking about industrialisation, Zambia is rightly at the hub of the region, and all neighbouring countries are our market. Right now we are saying most of our maize is being smuggled in neighbouring countries so why can’t we say let us trade with them, let us give value addition here, add value to maize and send it as a finished product that’s how it should be,” the President said.
Meanwhile, ZACCI President Chabuka Kawesha said his organisation is confident that with elements of monitoring and evaluation, the economic recovery programme will yield results.
Mr. Kawesha stated that ZACCI wants to be part of the solution and the monitoring and evaluation framework indicating that all the 28 chambers across the country have started submissions to see how best the country’s economic recovery can be addressed.
He further outlined sectors such as health, agriculture, education and mining as areas that can be considered as some enablers and impact measures by both government and the private sector within the first 100 days of the implementation of the economic recovery programme.
