Musokotwane calls for increase in investment

Musokotwane calls for increase in investment
Written by Florence Bupe
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 4:32:10 PM

FINANCE minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane has urged the Zambian business community to increase investment levels as the global economic crisis eases.

Dr Musokotwane observed that there were various indications that the economic crisis would soon come to an end, and advised that it was important for the country to increase its investment levels to reap any meaningful benefits once the recession ends.

“There are various indicators that the intensity of the global economic recession is declining. The forces of the recession are gradually coming to an end,” said Dr Musokotwane during the opening of Stanbic Bank’s Excel centre in Lusaka last Thursday.

He, however, emphasised that investments needed to be accompanied by high labour productivity as this was vital in the enhancement of the country’s revenue levels.

“Labour productivity is vital in this modern world. For us to be able to import and export to earn foreign exchange, we need labour productivity,” Dr Musokotwane said. “We need to produce goods and services that are of high quality, but we need to produce these goods as cheaply as possible.”

Dr Musokotwane said it was important for Zambia to address the challenge of high productivity costs in order to make the country more competitive internationally.

“We need to start addressing the problem of high production costs. If we don’t do that, we will fail to export,” he said.

Dr Musokotwane said continued prosperity and economic growth in Zambia were synonymous to successful exports.