Maravi

Mbulu calls on mine investors to create employment for youths

Mbulu calls on mine investors to create employment for youths
By Misheck Wangwe in Kitwe
Mon 20 Feb. 2012, 11:59 CAT

FOREIGN investors in the mining sector must help the government in creating jobs for many unemployed youths, says PF Kalulushi member of parliament Rayford Mbulu. In an interview in Kitwe, Mbulu who is also deputy minister in the Ministry of Sport, Youth and Child Development, said one of the major challenges facing many towns on the Copperbelt such as Kalulushi was youth unemployment.

He said the government was putting up a mechanism of utilising the local industry to create much-needed job opportunities for many young people who were looking up to government to create both formal and informal employment opportunities.

He said mining towns such as Kalulushi were housing very critical economic activities such as the Multi-Facility Economic Zones and many companies that would be put up in towns like Chambishi should translate into tangible job opportunities for people.

"We have mines and the economic zones and we hope that as we move forward as a people with this development agenda, the jobs and opportunities of empowerment our people have been looking for would become a reality. The jobs that can be done by our people with skills must be given priority," Mbulu said.

He said he had asked all the councillors in the 22 wards of Kalulushi to submit names of those not in unemployment in his constituency, especially youths and women, so that they could be incorporated in various mining and business houses.

Mbulu said he was confident that poverty would be significantly reduced in the country if all stakeholders work with government to create employment opportunities for many people on the streets without employment.

"In Kalulushi district we have industries like the Zambia Clay Industry, explosives are manufactured from there and we also have serious mining operations. We want to make sure that priority is given to the locals the way it is done in the North Western Province. We must ensure that as many as possible are employed in our local community by the companies that are operating there," he said.

Mbulu said women were also a special group that needed empowerment and it was gratifying that the government had attached seriousness to the programme of women empowerment to reduce poverty at household level.

Labels: JOBS, PF, RAYFORD MBULU, YOUTHS

posted by MrK @ 1:35 PM