'Lack of appropriate skills biggest challenge facing private sector'
'Lack of appropriate skills biggest challenge facing private sector'By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Wednesday January 30, 2008 [03:00]
Commerce minister Felix Mutati has said lack of appropriate skills is the biggest challenge facing the country’s private sector from taking a leading role in driving growth of the local economy. And Mutati said the country should abandon the pursuit of sustainability of the economy and embrace transformation.
Mutati said despite the government increasing allocations to economic infrastructure, this amount would be irrelevant if the private sector did not adopt appropriate skills to drive the economy.
Mutati was speaking on Monday when he addressed prospective Indian investors at the official opening of the two-day Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) organised Zambia-Asia International Business and Trade Conference under the theme ‘Zambia: A profitable Destination for investment and trade’ at Cresta Golfview Hotel in Lusaka.
Mutati also said the government acknowledged that good health also remained a challenge to realising a vibrant private sector.
“You can have most appropriate infrastructure to underpin contribution of the private sector to the growth in the economy of the country, but this becomes irrelevant in the absence of appropriate skills,” Mutati said. “So the issue of skills remains paramount and of course this combined with good health.”
Mutati said the government decided to allocate unprecedented allocations to the two sectors in this year’s national budget to help achieve this.
The government has this year proposed to spend K5.3 trillion to the development of economic infrastructure in the country and K3.7 trillion for both health and the education sector.
Labels: EDUCATION, FELIX MUTATI
posted by MrK @ 8:54 PM
1 Comments:
Commerce minister Felix Mutati has said lack of appropriate skills is the biggest challenge facing the country’s private sector from taking a leading role in driving growth of the local economy.
Which is why it was always insane for a) the IMF/WB to demand a reduction in spending on education and b) for the MMD governments to go along with that.
The introduction of fees, the lack of expanding education even as the population grew is coming back to bite the neoliberals.
And it was so predictable. Human capital is any country, any economy's main resource. It is one of the pillars of the economy.
There has to be a reorientation toward the proper role government, and away from 'free market' ideology.
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