Maravi

Martinez urges Zambians to be patient with poverty reduction programme

Martinez urges Zambians to be patient with poverty reduction programme
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sunday February 03, 2008 [03:00]

Zambians should be a little more patient with poverty reduction programmes because it takes a lot of hard work and time to reduce poverty, United States Ambassador to Zambia Carmen Martinez has advised. And the Central Statistical Office (CSO)’s living conditions monitoring survey has indicated that 64 percent of Zambians depend on begging as a means of coping with economic shock.

Meanwhile, Zambia’s economic growth declined by 0.5 per cent in 2007 mainly due to reduction in the output of metal mining, agriculture, manufacturing, electricity, construction and transport sectors.

Commenting on the 2008 national budget and its anticipated impact on poverty reduction, Ambassador Martinez said Zambia seemed to be doing well economically but to reduce poverty among its people, it would take some time hence the people should be patient.

“There has been a lot of debate on the different levels in changes of VAT and PAYE, and various other things but all in all, I think that there are some very good things in this year’s budget,” said Ambassador Martinez in an interview in Lusaka . “Obviously, Zambia seems to be economically getting better but any leader, in government and civil society, acknowledges that you still have too many poor people.”

She expressed optimism that this year’s budget would help reduce the poverty levels in the country.

“Hopefully, this new budget will be more acceptable and address the problem of poverty. It’s a lot of work and people need to be a little more patient,” Ambassador Martinez said. “I know people wouldn’t want to hear that but I am looking back at two years here, and there is so much going on. I know it doesn’t make sense to a man who is trying to feed many children in the compound.”

Ambassador Martinez also said though the Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) adjustments appear to be insignificant, it could help reduce poverty and bring about changes in people’s lives.

“You are not going to see change overnight, the adjustment is small but it makes a difference. I know every individual would want a wide margin adjustment but what you would like to do is to have a strong economy and you need a bigger base to collect from,” said Ambassador Martinez. “Many countries make a mistake of raising their rates so high hoping to collect large amounts from a small base but it makes sense to have a large base and collect small amounts from each individual.”

And according to the CSO’s The Monthly newsletter released by CSO acting director Efreda Chulu last Thursday, about 60 per cent of the respondents of the survey indicated that they had to reduce the number of meals.

The CSO further stated that there were more households relying on asking from friends in rural areas at 66 per cent than those in urban areas at 58 per cent.

And the CSO stated that preliminary estimates of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) based on data up to the third quarter of 2007 indicated that the economy grew by 5.7 per cent in 2007.

“In value terms, the GDP at constant 1994 prices was estimated at K3,542.5 billion compared to K3,351.7 billion in 2006. At the current prices, the 2007 GDP was estimated at K45,482.2 billion compared to K39,223.1 billion in 2006,” the CSO stated. “However, the economic growth for 2007 was lower by 0.5 percentage points than that of 2006 which was at 6.2 per cent. This was mainly due to the decline in the output of the metal mining sector (mining and quarrying) which declined by 1.4 per cent in 2007 compared to a growth of 7.3 per cent in 2006.”

Labels: CARMEN MARTINEZ, PRSP

posted by MrK @ 2:45 PM