Maravi

Mtine links C/belt’s poor performance to exclusion of key govt ministries

Mtine links C/belt’s poor performance to exclusion of key govt ministries
Written by Mutuna Chanda in Kitwe
Saturday, February 14, 2009 4:38:54 AM

THE poor performance of Copperbelt’s Diversification Programme resulted from the exclusion of key government ministries such as agriculture, Kitwe district commissioner Mcdonald Mtine has observed.

And Consumer Unity and Trust Society-Africa Resource Centre (CUTS-ARC) projects assistant Patrick Chengo has said Zambia’s economic growth needs to be export-led for it to be sustained.

In an interview after a CUTS sensitisation workshop on the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) in Kitwe on Wednesday, Mtine said the Copperbelt Diversification Programme was now a must.

“The market is here on the Copperbelt for anything that we can produce and this has now extended to the North Western Province and also to the (Democratic Republic) Congo,” Mtine said.

“Why the first phase of the Copperbelt diversification programme failed is because key government departments like agriculture were not taken on board initially. If they had, we would have moved by now.”

He said there were already success stories of agriculture-based production on the Copperbelt that needed a boost.

“When you look at the dairy products from the projects of Heifer International in Ndola and Luanshya, these are being spearheaded by women of different levels of education and has also embraced people living with disabilities,” said Mtine.

“So if they were encouraged, the Copperbelt would be a milk belt. We even have a market for small animals such as goats and pigs on the Copperbelt and in the DRC in Katanga Province where the population is more than the Copperbelt; and these can be developed with the help of our extension officers.”

And Chengo said owing to Zambia’s limited domestic market size and low purchasing power, its sustained economic growth needed to be underpinned by exports.

“Diversification is on our lips but it is not practical,” said Chengo. “We’re constantly saying ‘we need to add value’ but are our producers ready to add value? The challenge still remains with us.”

The EIF seeks to, among other things, improve the capacity of least developed countries to formulate, negotiate and implement trade policy to enable them fully integrate into the multilateral trading system and seize the available market opportunities.

The EIF is supported by six multilateral agencies – the International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Trade Centre (ITC), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank and World Trade Centre (WTO).

Labels: COPPERBELT PROVINCE, CUTS-ARC, ECONOMY, GOVERNANCE, MCDONALD MTINE

posted by MrK @ 4:38 AM