ZAMBIA: Revive co - op banks'

Advertise on The Zimbabwean

Written by David

Monday, 06 April 2009 08:15

By Joseph Banda

Agriculture in Zambia THE national indaba has recommended a range of measures that include revival of co-operative banks and zero-rating all agricultural in-puts and machinery to turn Zambia into a food basket.
Reading out the resolutions to the plenary yesterday, agriculture committee representative Chance Kabaghe said that agriculture was a key for Zambia to survive the global economic crunch.
He said there was need to promote market-driven agriculture while council levies on produce should be reduced or abolished because they contributed to the high cost of food.
Mr Kabaghe said that more rural banks should be set up to help farmers access banking facilities while co-operative banks should be revived without involving politics
He said that the Government should also relax the importation and exportation of maize as long as the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) maintained enough reserves.
He said an irrigation authority should be set up to look at irrigation while tax on fuel used in farms should also be removed.
After the recommendations were read out to the plenary, the indaba adopted them without much debate.
Mr Timothy Muchibwe read out the recommendations from the tourism committee, which were also adopted.
Mr Muchibwe said that the Zambia Tourism Board should be restructured and strengthened for it to effectively market Zambia to the outside world.
The indaba recommended that the implementation of the proposed tourism act should be deferred while Zambians in diaspora should be used to market the country.
It said there should be incentives to promote local investment in Zambia while domestic tourists should be encouraged and tour packages should be zero-rated
The indaba agreed that more international air carriers should be encouraged to come to Zambia directly while the road network should be worked on to improve connectivity.
By Press time last night four other committees were still presenting their reports and Vice-president George Kunda was expected to close the Indaba.

Times of Zambia

Comments (0)

Only registered users can write comments!

Weather from Harare - Partly Cloudy

29°C

Wind: 10 kph S

Humidity: 23%

Sunrise: 6:01 am

Sunset: 5:48 pm

Fri - Clear

Hi: 28°C
Low: 13°C

Sat - Sunny

Hi: 28°C
Low: 14°C

Uk retailers