PRESIDENT SHOULD HAVE BEEN QUICK TO ENGAGE CHINA, SAYS MUKWITA

By Isaac Zulu

President Hakainde Hichilema should have immediately engaged China the moment he got into office, says Zambia’s former Ambassador to Germany Anthony Mukwita.

During a radio appearance, mbassador Mukwita said that China is on the rise economically and might take the number one slot in the world by the year 2030, hence the need for the UPND administration to engage in some economic diplomacy with China and expedite the debt restructuring programme.

“Currently Zambia owes China $6 billion. China is our biggest creditor. We need our debt to be restructured. And President Hakainde Hichilema should have sent a message through his minister of foreign affairs immediately he got settled in office to set a meeting with his counterpart in China. It is a fact that President Hakainde Hichilema is aligned more to the West than to East. It is public knowledge. Zambia has been caught in the middle of the China – United States of America relationship,” Amb Mukwita explained.

Mukwita observed that China has always played a critical role in Zambia’s infrastructure development citing the construction of the TAZARA railway line, Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe and Harry Mwanga Nkumbula international airports, the Link Zambia road project and the construction of 650 health posts across the country; as some of major infrastructures that China has helped Zambia to build.

He also said that transparency and accountability should be observed in government’s debt acquisition, saying Parliament has to play an oversight role in this regard.

“And we should borrow for production and not for consumption,” Amb Mukwita said.

Amb Mukwita said the country should strive to bring in Germany investors who can set up industries in Zambia for the manufacture of components for vehicles such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz.

He explained that Germany is the largest economy in Europe and fourth in the world, hence the need to enhance economic diplomacy with that country.

Ambassador Mukwita said that Zambia has copper and cobalt for the manufacturing of electric batteries, saying it would be prudent to establish an electric vehicle battery manufacturing company.