Maravi

(STICKY) Zambia tired of begging - Sata

COMMENT - Zambia can and should be collecting more revenues from the mines than they receive in 'donor aid'. Donor Aid is both a scam and misleadingly titled to be confused with charitable giving. Every year, Africa exports $1,000 billion (1 trillion) in raw materials, receives $250 billion in 'donor aid' and $6 billion in 'charitable giving'. Instead of collecting $250 billion in taxes from it's own natural resources or owning them outright, they received virtually nothing in taxes from mining. Instead, they receive taxes paid by ordinary citizens in the West, called 'Donor Aid'. The only people this scam benefits, are the shareholders of the mining and oil companies.

Zambia tired of begging - Sata
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Fri 22 June 2012, 13:25 CAT

PRESIDENT Michael Sata says God will not forgive Zambia for tolerating unemployment in a small population of only 13 million people against the vast natural resources the country is endowed with. And President Sata says Zambia is tired of begging.

Meanwhile, the United Nations conference on sustainable development dubbed Rio +20 on Wednesday officially opened in Rio de Janeiro, with global leaders less enthusiastic about the compromised agreement negotiators reached earlier in the week which falls short of aspirations of protecting the environment in the expanding global economy.

President Sata said Zambia was tired of moving with a "begging bowl" from one developed country to another as the country had the capacity to become self-reliant and lift its millions of unemployed youths out of poverty if its vast natural resources were exploited to the benefit of Zambians.

"Zambia is an extremely large country with relatively smaller population," President Sata told a United Nations Development Programme-organised discussion on exploring economic development beyond GDP measurements.

"Some of you, 13 million population of Zambia is what you have in your cities and towns. It is most unfortunate and God will not forgive us that out of a small population of 13 million, you can still find unemployed people. The reason is that we are not utilising our natural resources which we have more than other countries."

President Sata said he admired and was grateful to Brazil which was leading in utilising its natural resources to improve lives of its ordinary people.

"I don't want the syndrome of 'take this'; the reason Africa has not developed is that we have always relied on begging from the super bowl," he said.

"Time has come for us to develop ourselves and let others come to beg from ourselves because we have more resources than the people we are begging from."

President Sata said only technological advancement to ensure sustainable development would lift Africa out of its current economic and developmental doldrums.

"You donors keep your money but we need your technology. All we need from you is good technology," said President Sata amid applause from the audience.

And the Rio +20 summit opened with global leaders endorsing a 50-page document negotiators agreed in haste with contentious issues like technology transfers from rich to poor nations and new financing for developing countries set aside.

According to sources, diplomats agreed on what everyone called a "mere beginning", a step towards a roadmap on how to embrace sustainable development at the conference which was coming two decades after the landmark 1992 conference - also held in Rio de Janeiro - which put sustainable development on the globe's agenda.

Opening the summit, Brazil President Dilma Rousseff urged "all countries of the world to commit" to reaching an accord that address serious environmental and social woes.

President Rousseff also said measuring the countries' economic growth progress based on Gross Domestic Product was not sufficient and that the world needed a better way of measuring economic growth which prioritised sustainable development and environmental protection.

She regretted that economic woes facing major economic powerhouses had hampered aspirations of developing countries from increasing their access to funding from key donors to help them enhance the use of renewable energy, on protecting forests, on eradicating poverty and hunger.

"Uncertainty in the future of the global economy, it becomes very difficult for key donors to make long-term commitments to mainstream efforts to lift the millions of people out of poverty," said President Rousseff.

"We are producing more wealth which is decreasing the resources for the future. The future we want shall not be built by itself if left to its own apparatus. The future generation's account depends on our decisions today."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged the world had made little progress on environmental issues since the first Rio meeting in 1992, but said leaders were working to reverse that at the Rio+20 summit.

Ban, who said the old model for economic growth had broken down and failed to achieve an inclusive model for holistic development, said there was need to build a global movement of change.

"Twenty years ago, the Earth Summit put sustainable development on the global agenda. Yet, let me be frank: our efforts have not lived up to the measure of the challenge," Ban told delegates. "For too long, we have behaved as though we could indefinitely burn and consume our way to prosperity. Today, we recognise that we can no longer do so."

The conference which drew over 50,000 delegates which included 100 heads of government and states is discussing sustainability programmes aim at ensuring that countries grow their economies and lift the marginalised out of poverty without harming the environment.

The UN conference, which marks the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit that declared the environment a priority, is the largest ever organised, with 50,000 delegates, the United Nations said.

According to UN figures, global food demand will double by 2030 and energy consumption soar by as much as 45 per cent, putting mounting pressure on finite resources amid growing social inequality, water shortages and global warming.

Labels: GDP, MICHAEL SATA, MINING, TAXATION, UNDP, WINDFALL TAX

posted by MrK @ 2:53 PM