President Rupiah Banda said government is developing measures to mitigate the adverse impact of the global credit crunch on the mining industry.
President Banda said the measures are intended to address concerns raised by the mining companies in order to reduce job loses and develop a mechanism to salvage mining operations.
He said this in a speech read for him by Vice President, George Kunda, at the official opening of the 2009 African Mining Congress (AMC) in Livingstone yesterday.
Mr. Banda said although the economic meltdown has adversely affected the economy, particularly the mining sector, government will remain committed to get the country onto a firm economic base.
Mr. Banda said he was happy with the confidence from some investors who are willing to invest in the mining sector in Zambia despite the prevailing global economic problems.
He observed that despite the fall in metal prices, investors have not been deferred their investment plans in the country.
He said the long term view for the sector is that the world’s demand for the metals, mainly driven by India and China, is likely to rebound and bring back mining operations to normal.
The President said it is government’s policy to ensure that the business environment remains attractive for further investment in the country.
He said in the medium and long terms, Zambia will continue to attract investors in the mining sector due to its conducive investment atmosphere.
He noted that Zambia still offers some of the best incentives in the mining industry such as exemption from custom and exercise duty on all mining equipment and machinery imported for mining purposes.
President Banda has further expressed confidence that the congress would provide a framework for business people from southern Africa and other regions to discuss and share ideas on the future of the mining industry on the continent in the wake of falling metal prices on the world market.
He urged Southern African states and the continent at large to consider coming up with a common approach to issues of taxation and environment which are key to sustainable development of the mining sector.
He said the southern African region has much to gain from the development of their mining economies through employment, taxation and other benefits, adding that the mining sector will only be sustained through enhanced cooperation.
Mr. Banda said the decision to continue hosting the congress in Zambia is good for the region because it will help develop the mining sector and therefore contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of the people.
Earlier, AMC Chairperson, Michel Ashby, said the sector has continued to contribute positively to human needs.
She said despite the various downturns that the mining industry has gone through, there is still hope that it will still return to normal operations.
She said Zambia plays an important role in the production of minerals for the global market.
ZANIS/CM/KSH/ENDS
How? Please provide Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic and Timebound measures.
The funny part of these measures is the trust on investors from China and India.
The rest is encoring of same views now and again. :-?:o
Keep developing our motherland and stop depending on the rest of the world to do it for you. Yes its a global economy but, we are responsible for our own growth
Zambians dont leave on credit our economy depends on trust but no body to trust out there :-?:-?:-?:-?:-?:-?:-?
Wondering when mature punditry will shape will take precedence in Zedian blogs. Stunningly we see no smart economic or policy debates among pundits but Low Grade criticism and usual politicized cadre PHDing each other-Pull Him Down version. Yet this is the time when smart sons of the soil in the domain of expertise should have been engaging in lively econometrical remodeling debates with own logical perspectives from domestic to international economic intervention.
Wondering when mature punditry will take precedence in Zedian blogs. Stunningly we see no smart economic or policy debates among pundits but Low Grade criticism and usual politicized cadre PHDing each other-Pull Him Down version. Yet this is the time when smart sons of the soil in their domains of expertise should have been engaging in lively econometrical remodeling debates with own logical perspectives from domestic to international economic intervention arguments theoretical or otherwise. It’s like demeaning criticism of those professionals whose advisory and courage on policy direction which principals pursue are based on Sata’s unscientific rhetoric of Pull Them Down mantra. There is no
There is no future in this route of punditry unless we change and prove our worth, we are at risk of living the irrelevant chatterboxes role when an oligarch is shaping up in our eyes. We call every body serving as dull but where is the intellect here in all these low grade debates devoid of command on issues? Where are the Doctorates, MPP, MBA, MPA, MA,MHA where those minds on these blogs or radio and TV talk shows? Why on earth should Sata without an inch of ability to understand any basic fiscal and econometrical model gain the courage to believe he has the solution? Unless we turn blogs as repertoire of idea smart debates Generating ideas, their relevancy may remain wishful thinking beyo
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH .Keep it simple Senior Citizen you sound like a text book!
Unless we turn blogs into repertoire of ideal smart debates Generating educated ideas, their relevance may remain wishful beyond Generations in Zed’s public policies. Pundits risk remaining static in irrelevance instead of impacting public policy. It’s time for self audit, deep introspection and criticism followed by realignment in the real world of responsibility.Recently Joyce Nonde who received so much condemnation was spot on about the Zedian youths.
I meant you wrote like a textbook!
Verbosity for its own sake!
Its amazing to hold congress on mining in Livingstone instead of Copperbelt where the impact has been felt.It would have meant sense as the participants would have seen for themselves the situation on the ground. In addition the delegates would have spent money on lodging and food etc hance multplier effects.Or ita a markting gimick for Sun Hotels. By the way what measurers is RBB talking about when last year he was in Luanshya complaining of problems. That was right time to react to save jobs and now that jobs have bin lost where is solution going to from. Perhaps China or India? Its all Zambian politiking until KINGDOM COME. That meeting will not achieve anything. NIKISI BOSSES.
so-called stress test to measure whether they have enough resources to weather a continued economic decline.
So how are you go to do it? It is easy to say something but action is another thing,so be serious you Rb and your group ,otherwise you need to come up with a proper work structure that will clearly define your goals and how to achieve them. b-)
So how are you going to do it ? i meant to ask(nkani ya typing niyovuta)
My teacher once said, solving problems here in class is the easy part but the harder part is doing it in the real world. Vision and thinking is what separates the grain from the chaff. We might acquire the best education money can buy but, without the above, we are nothing but a wasted nation. Some nations don’t have what we have but are well developed and economically sound.
The prevalent risks of global production is partly owing to the anachronistic revival of classical liberal ideologies many nations have blindly photocopied.Truth be told that rational market calculation is possible only with rational strategies under capitalism because of the need for the profit motive to drive private property-owning decision makers to optimize and generate efficient price signals.
I don’t think Shrek knows the impact of the global credit crunch as observed by his large unneccesary entourage on his foreign trips. When he goes out the government always dips in our foreing currence reserves which is dimishing slowly. Eventualy we will have a huge deficit in our balance of payments because our current occount will fail to satisfy our import needs. The last definite option will be IMF.
Kindly consider this Mr President twapapata, this is what your friends are doing.
Despite our passion for the free-market economy, now than never before there is a strong case for planning at any level of the bureaucracy-local or state government if it is carried out intelligently and is accompanied by the use of market mechanisms such as congetion Ring roads in over populated cities such as Lusaka to ensure efficient use of the resulting infrustrature.
Does the man really know what he’s talking about? I am forced to believe that there is very little our mining industry can do to alleviate the current pressure on the global economic scene. Furthermore, I have reason to believe that natural gas and oil have a more significant role to play in easing the crisis.
But like Obama said yesterday, “everyone thinks they are an economist nowadays.”
Talk is Cheap. 😕
Let’s face it guys, If this government hasn’t already worked out measures to combat the economic down-turn then they don’t have any solutions. Serious countries have already started pushing measures through their parliaments. It is the usual ‘all talk, no action’.
20. Nine Chale
Nine Chale
these are just kicks of a dying horse!! No measures just cheap talks and a blind trust in investors who have only shown interest!
I personally expect a President to more clear than this.
We cannot afford to eschew planning at systemic level. Planning by specific Government agencies involved in insfrastructure investment such as transportation networks, functions that in most economies seem to be in the public sector is key to beating the under development and credit crunch.make heavy expenditure in infrastrutures.Don’t withold money if we have to avoid cripping in a defrationary spiral.Sustain economic activity by boosting disposable income and specialized productivity of tradables through self creation of comparative advantage.Choose area of advanatage in the regional and international market.
The obsession with mining means that the government does not do anything to encourage home-grown, non-traditional businesses. Big mining companies simply use Zambians as a pool of cheap labour. What we require are businesses that are interdependent and encourage the development of local supply chains. Our mining companies instead are quick to run to South Africa for supplies. Mr. Banda wake up. We have been obsessed with miming for too long and we have been let down. Try something new!
It is surprising that measures are being developed this time. This is late! where was the government when other countries where developing similar measures? This time it should have been implementation of the measures. Some measures require government funding but how is this going to work when the budget has already been done. This is poor planning and lack of foresight by our leaders. The problem is that they thought Zambia will not be affected by the crunch and decided to go to sleep.
‘President Rupiah Banda said government is developing measures to mitigate the adverse impact of the global credit crunch on the mining industry’
This is wen the govt has realised that there is an economic meltdown and deloping measures sure. Where were his economic advisers? These are pipo who get paid to help govt/socienty on such matters way before they happen. Here again is an example of UNZA/CBU/ZICAS educated criminals failing the nation.
Which measures..Globe trotting with Edith Nawakwi with her Yellow Chitenge ?
RB has a billion dollar brain which never works : )):)):)):)):)):))
China fake drugs scandal
(01:05) Report
Feb. 7 – Chinese authorities arrest a man suspected of being the mastermind of a fake medication ring.
The fake medication has killed at least two people in northwest China.
The governement has warned that the economic slowdown could result in more fake drugs being produced as struggling drug makers cut costs and violate standards in order to survive.
Basmah Fahim reports.
dream on man
#6,#9,
Senior Citizen, your sleazy/squalid destructive criticism of the youth on the blogg sucks. You and Joyce Nonde should know better how to handle the youth. Why not criticise constructively?
:o:o
This is a very important thread worth an informative debate by brainny heavy caliber bloggers yet here registering the highest apathy.Typical of our low grade blogging cadres without standard or intellectual ability but insults.Blogs are noble e-democracy platforms for adding momentum to public opinion yet here the ideal initiative has been turned into a hub of sublevel static mind numbling cadre of party identity.Smart blogging threads are suppose to effect public policy in the dynamic world.Let LT post partisan vitriolic,the thread will jam.Policy and fundamental issues bloggers are apathetic.Million dollar question is where has smart and mature punditry gone to within short span?
32. Anonymous,
I hundred percent concur with Joyce Nonde and timely Senior Citizen’s straight talk rebuke hereon entry # 6 and 9.No one has pushed straight talk on Zambian blogs than this.Value has been watered down while mature and smart citizenry has all but withdrawn from what has perceptively turned into kindergatten sublevel version of blogging without vision.Indeed blogs ought be foras of intellectual exchange and effectual public policy opinion where some lines could be reviewed at own discretion if substance holds.It not insults and low grade brand that builds the momentum.If kids are crashed by such straight talk, good riddance.We risk running an empty generation if we flatter.
:-@:-@
#33,#34,
Boring.
Boring fundamentalist. Just advise the youth constructively, in a simple language and manner.
spare the rod, spoil the child.Our youths could productive and meaningfully building on their future somewhere instead of cadrelizing themselves with insults day in and out.RB is in public money so is Sata and HH drawing blank donor checks every year yet their youths are drawning in humble education and culture shocks of ignoramuses.They will never become PS,Diplomats,Directors,body members or such influential office holders without improving on their education.When these youths are wastefully blogging insults here,politicians’ children and real confidants are in safe havens buying an oligachy future with highlevel tertiary education.In tomorrow’s world,they will table Graduate school CVs.
#33,#34,
Type of people who kill a mosquito with a gun.
What will you have? years of experience in blogging insults and unrealised dreams.Then the same sons of the elites and their confidants will prevail turning the future in a typical oligachy.Its reality show my friend.Buy your future now productively.Reaudit your life.Criticise oneself with tough introspections.What has been my opportunity costs collectively or individually- gains and losses in the last two years of my actions? Indeed as Senior Citizen has sanctitly put it, if the answer is zero gains,realign your life now especially if you are in the Diaspora.Buy your future while you are where you can productively.
Lets salute LT for the initiative of this fora but our youth be told that its for the purpose of collective value and not facilitating self destruction of our youthful fabric who have misunderstood the essence of blogs.
God bless Zambia
#39, #40,
When you kill a mosquito with a gun you leave a big vacuum on the wall and miss the mosquito.
No youth has traded insults in here.
LT is boring today (:|
42. Ba Dr Maureen
Yes it boring because topics posted are beyond our level and these two old folks have deflated our usual morale of many tearing down MMD.I know what they have said is true but its discouraging to continue our funny.Now bloggers are asking themselves difficulty questions is it true i have wasted my time when i though i’m helping President Sata? Does it mean these blogs don’t change the game on the ground? Who reads them beyond us anyway?
George ‘Treason’ Duiker
Ronnie Mpuno
Angela Chif…Bilomo
Veep Red Lip
Sata Naleka Dobo
Dan‘Yapa Dress’ Pule
Katele ‘Microsoft’ Kalumba(MCSE)
Brian ‘asobesa unga’ Chituwo
Mike ‘kabwatabwata’
Bert Namulambe ‘Witchcraft’
Contrary to what has been said on this blog, Zambia is actually dying under the wait of useless PhD’s. If anything, this country needs craftsmen and artisans who actually produce value added goods like tools, toys, clothing and so on. Intellectuals tend to be idealists who are incapable of generating wealth. They are more confortable in the cosy environment of a University Campus. Zambia needs the likes of Alan Michael Sugar, Philip Green and others, who left school with nothing but went on to build billion dollar businesses through sheer hard work and initiative.
Contrary to what has been said on this blog, Zambia is actually dying under the weight of useless PhD’s. If anything, this country needs craftsmen and artisans who actually produce value added goods like tools, toys, clothing and so on. Intellectuals tend to be idealists who are incapable of generating wealth. They are more confortable in the cosy environment of a University Campus. Zambia needs the likes of Alan Michael Sugar, Philip Green and others, who left school with nothing but went on to build billion dollar businesses through sheer hard work and initiative.
44. Ba Dr Maureen,
There you are in your best line of action.Any idea on the economic strategies?
45. Chitapankwa,
Don’t deceive yourself with false comforts that illiteracy is a winning tool in life.Those people you list are smart and have excelled by exposing themselves to knowledge and expertise staff.Bill Gates is a Harvard entrant, Michael Dell a UT Austin entrant,and the list is endless.Knowledge is a basis of competitive in comparative economics as we face a globalised liberal society.We can debate this argument intelligently and facts will vindicate that education is an asset in life.Look at the competitive edge of the US in internationa trade, it has everything to do with efficiency gained from high tech capacity they have gained from ininnovation of expert citizenry.
China is a labor intensive economy using cheap abandant unskilled labor hence low quality products while the US is a high tech economy using few high skilled expertise in productivity on High technology producing massively quality products.We are failing as a continent because we have not realised this fact that education is an asset in cometitive edge economics.We have too many unskilled people doing the same job to produce one low grade product which cannot meet and sell on preferential markets.I hope you are not telling your siblings and kids to ignore education.
#48, I was not exhorting illitracy. What I was trying to point out is that the African tradition of chasing PhDs sometimes masks our relunctancy to settle down and make meaningful contributions. It is interesting you mention Bill Gates. He turned his back on Havard to actually make a meaningful contribution. Without home grown business, Zambia is going nowhere. At the end of the day, Zambian PhDs are job seekers when they get back to Zambia.
#49, China may be a labour intensive economy but most of the Chinese people work for Chinese companies. These companies manufacture goods on behalf of western companies, but they are owned by Chinese businessmen. In Zambia we work for foreign owned companies. The poor quality of Chinese goods is a passing phase. In the early 1970’s, Japanese goods were generally NOT well regarded. Now they are highly regarded. In good time, China will overtake Japan.
#49 I believe in education – meaningful education. Not using tax payer’s money to sponsor 55 year olds abroad to do PhDs in history, only for them to retire three year after they return.
:d:d:d
Chitapankwa,
I sincerely pray that you are last born and not first in your family otherwise your siblings yet to discover themselves in life are at risk of bad influence.If you are single, i pray you are called into cellibacy never to have a wife or kids in your life.I doubt if your parents would appreciate your resentment towards education.You risk raising up an illiterate family if you buy that deception that education is irrelevant in life unless one becomes an entrepreneur.
Education has to be built on a sound foundation of common sense if you develop your common senses well, 80% of your job is done the other 20% you learn in class and what life teaches you.sense are hearing, ,seeing(not only looking but actually seeing) Some of us spend to much time talking believing that is also a sense but it is an output .have you guys heard of garbage in garbage out.so spend more time listening and seeing and doing instead of blabbering junk then maybe we will get some place our math teacher at kamwala secondary used to say 30 years ago.all wisdom is lost from the big hole in your face.
Senior Citizen, Observer & Cheese (one and same person). Man you are a very deluded person. Get off your high horse, come back down to mother earth and remember to take those rose tinted glass off.
I totally agree with Chitapankwa. From the time we gained independence, we have enough (for the population) peope with PHDs which going by your rhetoric reasoning should have sorted the problems the people of Zambia are facing. Blogging will not take you anywhere. It`s not as if these people your poor relatives in Shang`ombo vote for are not learned enough. In the 17 years that MMD has been ruling, we seen learned people come and go. Ask yourself why!
#56 Contd.
Your post in 56 is not accommodating at all which makes me doubt whether you yourself are mature or not. You are a typical example of Africans. “Tag with me or” attitude.
Remember these MBs are not for politics alone.
#56,
good points.What are these Phds doing on the blog anyway?They should be talking to the govt who will listen to them not this showing off in here. Not everyone is educated to their level. Each person has a reason for not attaining their educational vision..Sponsored at 55yrs ‘sic’. These triple Phd’s Holders should not be wasting time and space on this blog, talk, talk with no fruits.They should contribute meaningfully and act on real issues. Not attacking youths who are in their prime.
#54,Are you missing youth wood?
Zambians, keep it simple. PHDs shall not solve our problems, except just be academic rhetoric. Keep it simple. That’s the rule.
With SoyaNyama at the helm, i dont see this coming to pass. Maybe the opposite, already $1 dollar is K5200 Zambian Kwacha. No mealie meal, petrol is also in short supply. Zambia on Auto Pilot, leaders clueless on managing the Economy.Better we land into the Hudson River.
It is disappointing that a very important meeting for the mining industry was held in L/stone and not Copperbelt where mining takes place. Participants should have been given the chance to see the mines, miners and assess if possible the effect of the Worldwide financial difficulties.
The fact that the meeting was held in L/stone shows this was another talking show. The mine owners have exagerated the problem. It’s only the price of metals that have gone down. Mind you, few months ago mines enjoyed a record high price of metals. The low price is not that bad to allow mine owners to complain so much. They can still operate profitably if they put business strategies together.
Reducing the size of labour force is not the only cost saving measure, but mine owners are taking advantage because they know Govt will respond to their demands if they declare people redundant today and re-engage them the following day. Already, windfall tax has been done away with.
Govt, move in and put a stop to this manupilation.
Is it true that people are lining up for mealie meal in Zambia, if that is the case and this Govt will not perform ,i think it is high time Mr Sata ,Mr HH put the Zambian people’s interests ahead of their parties and personal interests by forming a coalition party to stand against the MMD in 2011.They can actually enter into a MOU where each can be President for 2 and half years and the other 2 and half years as vice president like a job rotation set up. Zambia needs a revolution otherwise if they stand with their own parties we will see the same trend we have been seeing in the past unless there is a major overhaul in our election system.The people who will lose are the Zambians and i a
contd and i am sure Sata’s age will not allow him to contest in 2016 unless i am wrong as for HH i am sure his party will also not allow him to contest in 2016 as they need to give chance to others unless i am wrong. So for the sake of all these odds they need to come together and serve the Zambian people, it is not about them anymore, it’s about the Zambian people and Zambia, unless they don’t care and want to see Zambia deteriorate further. As for the small parties since we have not seen any proven track records in terms of performance unless i am wrong they shouldn’t contest out of putting the Zambian people’s interest before theirs so that we don’t have vote splitting .God bless Zambia.
New Zambia
Please, whatever the thing that motivates you to believe that SATA can bring tangible solutions, I advise you, think again. The problems that Zambia FACES can be articulated by a few minds given the chance, SATA excluded. SATA at best is a general foreman good at carring out instructions that require no intellectual input on his part.
The problems that we face in Zambia are at this stage well known and need no further examining. The supposition that we need a pusher is sheer desperation and lack of trust in our capacity. The forces to be stirred to gain tangible benefit requires intelligent allocation of priority by our Planners. Sheer missappropriation of resources above anything else has been our greatest pitfall and cause of our economic stagnation. The corruption around us is not even the cause of the problem or a symptom of our poverty.
The contradictions we face seem many and varied compounding our predicament. Education is important but to be clearly understood. The best education will still remain experience. The harvads, oxfords, and the likes draw their status wholly on experience and aim. No point having a million Professors in Zambia if out of them not even a single needle can be made. That type of education does not add value. It is easy to suppose in these days thatone is educated by virtue of the tag they carry when infact they are not.
Which school would have been ready to confer a Phd on Bill Gates? Proven and authenticated discoveries by Bill Gates made thier way into Unversity curriculum from a college drop out long after discarding him as a failure.
I miss Andy Mazoka, the best brain to have ever contested the presidency. The guy could explain CLEARLY what he would do about any problem in a way that inspired confidence. this country is going nowhere at this level of thinking. God serve us