National Development and Planning Minister Alexander Chiteme has disclosed that his ministry is on the course of instituting plans towards its responsibility of becoming a focal point in the implementation of Zambia’s diversification agenda.
During a cabinet meeting that took place on May 27th, 2019, Ministry of National Development and Planning was designated as a center lead in the implementation of the diversification agenda for better accountability.
In an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Chiteme said the ministry is in the processes of finalizing the set up of a public investment board aimed at assessing projects done by government to ensure social visibility and transparency in service delivery.
He mentioned that projects such as road construction and infrastructure will be benchmarked by the ministry in order to have a cost-effective project and avoid spending a lot of funds on certain projects which have low returns.
“We are enacting a public investment board which will make sure that every project that is being done by government passes through the ministry for appraisal before it takes course so that our projects can be effective and this is being done in line with pillar number one on the 7th National Development Plan – 7NDP,” he said.
The minister further revealed that the progress towards the implementation of the 7NDP is currently at 40% and that government has secured over K150 million towards its implementation. He has however noted the need by both private and public sectors in the country to play their specific roles in the implementation of the 7NDP if various objectives are to be archived.
Zambia has struggled to launch a sustained diversification drive as the dominance of the higher retuning copper mining industry seems to overwhelm other key sectors. The country only engages in serious diversification pronouncements when copper prices fall and those plans get abandoned as soon as copper prices pick up.
Experts have pointed out the need for serious and sustained investments in power generation which can easily be exported to other countries. Another industry is Tourism, with the peaceful people who readily welcome visitors, this can be an asset to get more tourists and host more conferences which would bring in the much needed forex as an alternative to over dependence on copper mining industry.
Agriculture and Agribusiness especially exports to neighboring countries with vast markets such as Angola and Congo DRC which even local Zambians can drive has remained on paper with no tangible bilateral deals being signed by the country.
In the end, the country has been trying to do everything every time which needs to be whittled down to specific focus sectors for investment so that the funds put in can have a higher impact and provide a long term platform for diversification.
