SNDP should translate into tangible results - businessman

SNDP should translate into tangible results - businessman
By Mwila Chansa
Sun 06 Feb. 2011, 04:00 CAT

THE government should resist the temptation of doing things outside the Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP) just to win votes, according to a Kitwe businessman.In an interview, Eddie Kapungulya observed that this being an election year, the government may be tempted to do things outside the plan just to gain popularity.

He observed that people at the grassroots would only understand and appreciate development plans if they saw tangible results.

“The man on the ground would want to see tangible results and that can only happen when they see actual development. When you talk about development plans and the economy, we are talking about macro-economic indicators,” Kapungulya said.

“If for example there were no jobs last year, people should be able to see new jobs this year and that is when they will appreciate these plans.”
He said the projected reduction in extreme poverty should be translated into people’s improved livelihood as opposed to just being on paper.

And Kapungulya hoped the SNDP had seriously addressed the diversification of the economy from copper mining to other sectors.

He said with the rising copper prices, people may become complacent and forget about diversification but they needed to be reminded that copper prices could fluctuate and throw all their plans into shambles.

Kapungulya called for follow up mechanisms to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the SNDP.

He said the Ministry of Finance and National Planning and the Bank of Zambia should regularly monitor key performance indicators such as inflation, the exchange rate and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to ensure that the plan was adhered to.

Kapungulya also said the medium term expenditure framework should be critically analysed.

In launching the K132 trillion SNDP on Friday, President Rupiah Banda admitted that the implementation of the Fifth National Development Plan was negatively affected by poor coordination and weak linkages within government departments.