Maravi

Martinez looking forward to a day Zambia will stop asking for aid

Martinez looking forward to a day Zambia will stop asking for aid
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
Thursday May 29, 2008 [04:00]

AMERICAN Ambassador to Zambia Carmen Martinez has said she looks forward to a day when Zambia will stop asking for aid. And Ambassador Martinez said she was saddened that Zambia with all its rich natural resources still exported raw materials. Speaking at the Zambezi Sun yesterday, Ambassador Martinez said the American government had a long-term relationship with Zambia and that they will have spent US$845 million during the first five years of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) funded programmes.

"The current total approved budget for the financial year 2008 is over US$269 million," she said. "It is great to work here and it shall be my happiest day for me when we will stop assisting you."

Ambassador Martinez said requests for aid must diminish every year just like people graduate from institutions of learning.

"You have to graduate," she said. Ambassador Martinez said job creation was priority number one on the American government's assistance to Zambia.

"We do not just assist in the HIV/AIDS. We need to create jobs. Job creation is high on the list so that you can support your family, followed by education, so that you increase the tax base," she said.

And Ambassador Martinez said Zambia needed to ensure that it exported finished products as opposed to raw products such as copper ore and gemstones.

"You need to look at ways that Zambia will export finished products not raw materials as you are dependant on copper prices," she said.

Ambassador Martinez said the US also supported tourism development in Livingstone because of the HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the area.

"The town's tourism industry is growing and health is a requirement for a good Zambian workforce. We had to look at places that needed help and Livingstone being a border town was high at risk with cross border traders and truck drivers," she said.

Ambassador Martinez further appealed to traditional leaders to talk more on issues of morals, saying 13 and 14-year-old girls were not supposed to get married.

"I don't want to set my moral values on you but traditional leaders must step up. Then we shall see change," Ambassador Martinez said.

And HIV/AIDS activist, Dr Manasseh Phiri, during a peer educators' forum with Ambassador Martinez appealed to the youths to get involved in talking about the pandemic.

"You have to get involved by speaking not just here but also out there and I know that you can make it, " said Dr Phiri.

Labels: CARMEN MARTINEZ, DONORS, MWANAWASA

posted by MrK @ 4:30 AM