By 
A stakeholder consultative meeting to discuss the content of government’s proposed strategy for the actualisation of the three million tonnes of copper in a decade has been held in Lusaka.
The meeting, held on Tuesday and organised by the Policy Monitoring and Research Centre (PMRC), brought together experts in the mining sector, small and large mining corporations as well as civil society organisations.
PMRC Executive Director, Sydney Mwamba, pointed out that the meeting came at a time when the world as well as the Zambian economy, mining industry in particular, were broadly confronted with major economic challenges.
Mwamba stated that the meeting represented government’s aspirations to reinstate the necessary confidence in the growth of the mining industry, which remained a key pillar for Zambia’s economic agenda.
“The document we are reviewing today signifies the commitment government has placed in ensuring that Zambia boosts its copper production and regains its position as one of the top three major producers of copper on the global market,” he said.
Read more: New technologies required to address plastic pollution, recycling, says PMRC
Zambia is currently number eight copper producer on the global market and second in Africa with annual production of 760,000 metric tonnes in 2022.
Mwamba believes that the meeting is a milestone in supporting government’s development agenda in the mining sector.
“As you may be aware, the institution in 2022 worked with the Ministry to conduct a study on key reforms for the actualisation of the three million metric tonnes in a decade aspiration and one of the key recommendations for the reforms was government to develop a master plan to guide the aspirations.
“Therefore, for us, this strategy is milestone towards the works of PMRC,” he said.
At the same function, Ministry of Mines and Minerals Deployment Permanent Secretary, Hapenga Kabeta, said ramping copper production to the desired production of three million tonnes annually would have a positive impact on Zambia’s social-economic development.
This development was also expected to contribute in accelerating Zambia’s vision of attaining a prosperous middle income economy by 2020.
“To support the actualisation of government’s aspiration on copper production, the Ministry formulated a strategy, which among others, spells out the strategic focus of government in attaining this ambitious target.
“It is for this reason that this consultative meeting is being held today to deliberate on the strategy,” he said.
WARNING! All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express permission from ZAMBIA MONITOR.
Comments