Zambia commences Least Developed Country graduation process

Government will prioritise economic and environmental development agenda in order to meet the third criteria for a possible graduation from Least Developed Country category (LDC).

Ministry of Finance and National Planning Permanent Secretary, Trevor Kaunda highlighted that the LDC third criteria on economic and environmental vulnerability, have not made much progress since Zambia’s merchandise export concentration continues to be highly skewed to copper and cobalt accounting for an average of 73.8 percent of total export.

Mr. Kaunda said this in a speech read on his behalf by the Ministry’s Director Monitoring and Evaluation Prudence Kaoma during an assessment conference on the Vulnerability Profile of Zambia and Least Developed (LDC) Country Graduation process in Lusaka yesterday.

He said that as stipulated in the Eighth national Development Plan the country’ economic programme for 2022 to 2026 is focused on facilitating social economic transformation for improved livelihoods across the country.

Mr. Kaunda explained that the government’s focus is to reverse economic challenges by boosting underperforming sectors of the economy, creating jobs and closing the inequality gap between the poor and the rich.

‘’The government’s undertaking on economic and environmental development will be achieved through undertaking strategic interventions in the sectors of agriculture, mining, manufacturing and tourism,’’ he said.

‘’ As noted in the Eight National Development Plan the country is still faced with a number of social-economic challenges and as such did not meet the third criteria on Economic and Environmental Vulnerability on the LDC graduation,’’ stated Mr. Kaunda.

And United Nations (UN) Representative Paul Chitengi stated that the UN will always support the implementation of the Eighth National Development plan for sustainable development in the sector of the economy.

Mr.Chitengi indicated that the UN sustainable Development Framework provides a broader framework for addressing gaps in various sectors such as manufacturing, energy and job creation.

‘’The UN team in Zambia is in the process of developing an annual framework to assist the Zambia’s government in addressing the gaps in social-economic development of the country in different sectors,’’ he said.