Maravi

'No country has created jobs or reduced poverty overnight'

'No country has created jobs or reduced poverty overnight'
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Mon 12 Nov. 2012, 10:00 CAT

THERE is no country in the world that has created employment or reduced poverty levels as high as Zambia's overnight, says ZUCMUN.

Zambian Universities and Colleges Model United Nations (ZUCMUN) executive director Kayimbo Miyombo Katengo, however, said youth unemployment is an issue which holds the votes today and would have a huge impact on the success score card of the PF government in 2016.

He said it was sad that some sections of society had taken the demonisation of government beyond the limits of humanity.

"We strongly urge all stakeholders to open up to honest debate and cooperation rather than name-calling as criticism has never been a way of starting a conversation with someone," Katengo said.

He said the 2013 national budget was one of prosperity and as a youth organisation of intellectuals, ZUCMUN had more confidence in President Michael Sata.

Katengo said ZUCMUN possessed a better understanding of the magnitude of President Sata's challenges and his visceral determination to overcome them.

He urged fellow youths to be patriotic, appreciative of the efforts made so far and understand that the government wanted Zambia to be both great and good.

Katengo said it was possible to generate a million new jobs in Zambia's eight major employment sectors.

He, however, cautioned the government against increasing the size of the civil service without effectively planning how a huge civil service would be managed in future as it would work against the government gains in national economic growth.

Katengo said industrialisation of all economies in the world had been a well planned process, hence the urgent need for Zambia to put in place key competitiveness indicators.

"If government is to walk with its head high up come 2016, they must ensure that the economy grows at and above 15 per cent for the next four years and double the foreign direct investment that Zambia received between 2004 and 2008. This is only possible if government can assure international investors that their investments will not be affected once ploughed into the Zambian economy," he said.

Katengo said the country did not need to build a bridge to the past but to build a bridge to the future that would liberate the people, the suffering youth and women, from the claws of poverty and extreme hunger.

"Let us resolve to build that bridge to a middle-income nation by 2030, where an average household in Zambia can afford three basic meals a day, have access to safe and clean drinking water, have access to effective and efficient health services and where boys and girls have equal access to education at all levels and where every village shall have a borehole. The people of Mufumbwe have pioneered the blueprint to that bridge which leads Zambia into the future," he said.

Katengo said as a young democracy, there was need to move away from the politics of petty bickering and extreme partisanship.
He said Zambia should move beyond being one nation and widen the circle of freedom and opportunity, and strengthen the bonds of community across the lines that divide it.

"All Zambians are born equal before the law of the land. Hence, the urgent importance that all be constitutionally protected from any and all forms of harm and discrimination," Katengo said.

And Katengo said his organisation was disappointed with the government's handling of the UNWTO preparations.

He said the government did not seem to have any clear role of what the youth would play during this global event.

"Therefore, we agree with those that feel that Zambia is not on the right track in meeting UNWTO host obligations. We today make a public demand for an audience with government to discuss the role that we the youth can play during the UNWTO," he said.

Katengo demanded good politics and policies that will give the country a good government.

"However, government must be warned that the youth may be operatively progressive, but philosophically they remain moderately conservative and deeply sceptical of government. Nonetheless, with effort, it is possible to make youths staunchly loyal to the government just as the youth of the 1970s were loyal to the government of that time," said Katengo.

Labels: DEVELOPMENT, ZUCMUN

posted by MrK @ 4:19 PM