President Hakainde Hichilema has reiterated his call for the Public and Private Sectors to work together to grow the country’s economy and create jobs for citizens.
President Hichilema said an effective partnership between the public and private sector will foster growth in the private sector, which will in turn support the government in the provision of essential services such as health, education and food security.
Speaking in Lusaka this afternoon during the 3rd annual Public Private Partnership Dialogue Forum, the President lamented that the country’s domestic revenue is low and can only be increased through increased local and foreign investments, especially with the challenges that climate change continues to pose on the country.
He emphasized that the country’s targets of producing 10 million tonnes of maize, water harvesting plans and the 3 million metric tonnes copper production are critical for the country’s economic recovery and further directed that the forum delegates to quickly drive investments in the country’s key sectors.
President Hichilema has also tasked the public and private sector to use the dialogue forum to come up with targets and timelines for each action agreed on and further tasked each party to quickly fulfil their end of the bargain.
President Hichilema has further called for a change of attitude in the public sector and removal of bottlenecks for efficient delivery of services through the public private sector collaboration.
During the same forum, the International Financial Corporation of the World Bank launched the Zambia Country Private Sector Diagnostic Report which indicated that despite the country having recorded negative economic indicators, there’s an increased interest from foreign investors, projecting Foreign Direct Investment to be as high as 3.9 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product GDP.
The report further revealed that mining, Agriculture, Solar and tourism are the country’s key investment sectors but are constrained by policy and regulatory restrictions and changes, sector uncertainties, licensing and regulatory burdens among others.
Earlier, Private Sector players in the financial sector shared their contributions towards private sector growth through various initiatives aimed at increasing access to finance for the private sector.
And the Association of Power Companies in Zambia Chairman Sylvester Hibajene highlighted that the forum has created impact in the sector and other sectors and stressed that more needed to be done.
ZANIS reports that this year’s Public Private Dialogue Forum was held under the theme; embracing sustainability; unlocking economic opportunities in the face of climate change and drought.
