President Mwanawasa has called on Zambians, regardless of their political affiliations to create opportunities for the youths in the country.
Mr. Mwanawasa said political bickering among political leaders will not help but retard the development of the youths in the nation.
The President was speaking at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross during the 2007 Youth
week Youth Sunday Service in Lusaka today under the theme: “Youths Rise to the
Challenge of the Job and wealth Creation”.
He regretted that opposition political leaders prefer to shun important gatherings
that aim at improving the lives of the youths.
“The challenge should not be for youths alone but for political leaders to rise to
the challenge by creating employment opportunities for the youths,” he said.
“Political leaders should forget about what happened during the last elections and
instead concentrate on creating jobs for the youths.”
Mr. Mwanawasa said it was fully for political leaders to preach about a new
constitution and mobilise youths to rise against the government when young people
were in need of jobs.
He urged the youths not to be used by politicians and not to agree to initiatives
aimed at depriving them of a good future.
He said government was doing everything possible to ensure that the youths in the
country benefit from its programmes.
Mr. Mwanawasa said there is need to cultivate an attitude that encourages hard work
and development instead of pre-occupying the mine with politics at the expense of
young people.
And Father Emmanuel Chikoya of the Chawama Anglican Parish in his homily said
Zambian youths should be people of purpose and vision in order to push the country’s
economy forward.
He urged the youths not to be used as tools of violence but to be principled people
in order to make a difference in society.
ZANIS
I thought the creation of jobs for unemployed youths and other jobless members of society is the preponderance of those who are in power! A few suggestions on how we can care for the youth, as well as create jobs, are presented in the ensuing commentary addressed to Mr. John Sakala of the Times of Zambia.–H.K.
CARING FOR THE YOUTH
You are right kyambalesa, Mr Mwanawasa and the group must creat jobs for the youths.
How can the youth make a difference in society if those people in power can not creat jobs for them?
Please help our youth.
While what you are saying is true, Kyambalesa and Masikini, i think its important for us to differenciate between a government that creates jobs and one that creates an environment that makes it possible for the creation of new jobs. I believe it is not the governments job to create jobs, however it is their job to create an environment that makes it possible for the creation of new jobs… In our country, we have a situation where big foreign investors negotiate special deals while small local entrepreneurs are left to cop with business unfriendly rules that make it difficult to survive.
Wright, Jr.:
The Zambian government can facilitate the creation of jobs by reducing Pay As You Earn (PAYE), corporate taxes and value-added tax so that individuals and business entities can keep more of their hard-earned incomes for investment, saving and consumption. Taxes on personal incomes, for example, can be reduced for the various income ranges as follows: (a) K500,000 or less per month–0%; (b) K500,001 to K1,200,000–from 25% to 20%; (c) K1,200,001 to K5,200,000–from 30% to 25%; and (d) K5,200,001 or more per month–from 35% to 30%. And a maximum tax rate on corporate income can be pegged at 30%, while value-added tax can be reduced from 17.5% to 12.5%.
If they are complemented by a sizable reduction in interest rates, lower taxes can jump-start the national economy by stimulating both investments and consumption and ultimately generate a cornucopia of employment opportunities that can absorb large numbers of unemployed youth and other jobless members of society. Inflation would very likely rise to 20% or so owing to reductions in taxes and interest rates intended to stimulate the supply of, and the demand for, goods and services in order to bolster job creation and economic growth. It is essential for Zambia to reverse its current emphasis on stabilizing inflation at the expense of job creation and economic growth.
Reducing the size of the government and other cost-cutting measures can enable the government to perform its essential functions with less tax revenue.
I don’t think it is that simple. Inflation is big deal. I mean you can’t just give money to everyone to spend in the name of stimulating the economy. There will be just no things to spend money on and the little things that we have will have no choice but to go up and it will be back to KK days ..queuing up for bread because everybody has this money that has lost value.
So Kyambalesa, inflation is big deal and a lot of us that lived under it know it’s effect full well. Ask the people in Zimbabwe and they will tell you. In case you still have that Grade 7 definition of inflation-Too much money chasing too few goods-the real definition of inflation the rate at which your currency is losing value. You need to watch Inflation it matters.
What grows economies and creates Jobs is Production and nothing else. Lets export more and import less. Earn more and spend less then will we have a wealthy nation ..same for families. Free recipe for wealth creation..more in the next post
Noticed that there is a limit on how much I can post in one shot..anyway. As I said you have to take care of inflation.You can’t just create jobs and pay people money that is losing value at a higher rate. You will get people complaining about wage increases all the time all over the place and build a nation full of strikes and trade unions. That is not the way to create wealth for a nation.
I hope you see how complicated this issue is. The other end of it-which you articulated well- is that you can’t have zero inflation because you will drive the economy into recession. Nobody will spend money and without spending the economy can’t grow. The truth really is in the middle and this is what makes this case complicated ..and politicians jump on it to sell us lies, but never really solve it. I think production is the only TRUE and MAJOR way to sort this beast
Mr. Justice,
Check out some of my publications on socio-economic development at the National Archives of Zambia or UNZA / CBU libraries. If you are outside Zambia in the U.S. or the United Kingdom, check some of the major local libraries for some of the publications. Once you familiarize yourself with the subject matter that I have tendered, get back to me with your alternative paradigms to socio-economic development.
Meanwhile, stay well, and God bless.
Mr.Wright; I strongly agree with you when you say that government should ‘create an environment’ that makes it possible for the creation of jobs by local and foreign investors/entreprenours… I am also interested in what your full views on this are should you be willing to expand on this…