By Mulenga Banda, Lusaka
President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia has acknowledged the potential of the diaspora in creative innovation, facilitation of global trade and investment as well as skills and knowledge transfer.
The President was speaking on Wednesday at the inaugural Diaspora Conference in Livingstone with the theme ” Shifting – Mindsets To Ignite Growth”.
Hichilema commended the organizers of the conference for bringing participants from across the globe saying that Zambia can not stabilize alone without the friends.
“We were honoured to have participated in the inaugural Diaspora conference in Livingstone today, under the theme “shifting mind-sets to ignite growth”. We applauded the organisers for bringing together Zambians and other stakeholders from across the globe to this important meeting, and noted that we can’t stabilise Zambia alone without friends of Zambia.
“The theme is a rallying call to us all to take charge of our shared destiny by embracing hard work, upholding ethics, intergrity, patriotism and unity. As we have always stated, we must always aim to create value because we cannot share poverty.
“We acknowledged the potential of the diaspora in creative innovation, facilitation of global trade and investment as well as skills and knowledge transfer as our government formulates policy to harness this immense potential. We told them that now more than ever, their country needed their know how and experience in order to build an economy that was brought down to its knees.
“We noted the high cost of remittances to Zambia and urged the Bank of Zambia Governor to deal with the challenge in line with a study and recommendations on remittances, that was conducted with the support of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
“We encouraged the Zambian Diaspora to partner with the Public Private Partnership (PPP) in order to participate and fully appreciate and leverage the business potential of their country.
“We needed to change the art of work that ‘glorified’ good life without working, or flamboyant lifestyles without working hard, and further stated that corruption was not part of the menu.
“We encouraged fellow Zambians living in the Diaspora to be our country’s Brand Ambassadors and ensure they stayed away from vices that tend to tarnish the image of their country”.
