Maravi

Lecturer urges govt to mobilize copper revenue towards infrastructure

Lecturer urges govt to mobilize copper revenue towards infrastructure
By Kabanda Chulu in Kitwe
Mon 09 Aug. 2010, 17:40 CAT

COPPERBELT University senior lecturer Davidson Chilipamushi has challenged the government to mobilise resources from the copper mining industry to develop other infrastructure if benefits of economic growth are to be felt by ordinary Zambians.

Commenting on the surge in copper prices currently trading at over US $ 7,400 per metric tonne, Chilipamushi said Zambia should put in place an organised way of checking and collecting the billions of kwacha accrued in other mining activities apart from copper.

“We only focus on copper but when mining copper, there are other minerals that are mined alongside copper; and we don’t have an organised mechanism to ensure that the billions earned from minerals apart from copper are also accounted for in terms of royalties and other taxes,” Chilipamushi said.

“And since copper is the mainstay of the economy and it is growing, then there must be a way to ensure that resources are mobilised from this sector to develop other infrastructure like the way it is being done in Angola, where resources from oil are pooled into a revolving fund used to develop other industries; and this is why Angola is able to grow its economy by over 15 per cent.

But in Zambia, we think this is an impossibility but it is happening with other resource-rich countries and even Chile did the same through its copper industries.”

He said that ordinary people should feel the benefits of economic growth.

“If the economy is growing, where has the growth come from and where has it gone? Because official statistics indicate that 64 per cent of Zambians are below the poverty datum line; meaning that these people are not participating in the economic growth, unless we become practical and aim for a much higher economic growth target than the usual five or six per cent,” said Chilipamushi.

In the 2010 budget, finance minister Situmbeko Musokotwane announced that the macroeconomic objectives would be to exceed five per cent growth, to reduce end-year inflation to eight per cent and to limit domestic borrowing to two per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Labels: COPPER, DAVIDSON CHILIPAMUSHI, SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE

posted by MrK @ 2:35 AM