Zambia, DRC should gear up bilateral talks to safeguard economic benefits!

By: Kelvin Chisanga

Social-Economist

We need to protect human life at most times but we also need to protect human beings through trade and business integrations, the case of closure has left with a sour taste on the economic front as DR Congo and Zambia have emerged with stronger ties when it comes to trade and commerce investment activities and development.

To this effect, the republic of Zambia and DR Congo should quickly table trade concerns following the protests that ignited in between the two countries’ borders in regards to the types of imports being currently undertaken.

The two states should work out amicable resolve in order to protect key fundamental economic interests that exist between the two nations, working out economic interests on trade and investment can be considered as an ideal situation to engage with, in serious bilateral commitment between the two countries for the bigger benefits of economic values that these two countries do bring and benefit from each other.

Otherwise, this temporal closure as announced on Sunday by Commerce Minister Hon Chipoka Mulenga will bring about some serious devastating impact on economic structures of the two countries, and further this will negatively impact on regional trade system as it will greatly crash on commerce investment activities in both COMESA and SADC.

Economically, there is a strong need to create harmony for smooth passage of essential goods and services at these critical borders which by essence contribute largely to the formation of sound and health economic outputs.

The closure however might create a serious distortion on the anticipated GDP profile for Zambia, and the repercussions will also poise some huge effects that will unable to be quantified especially at the times when Zambian economy is struggling in the process of recovering from many economic shocks and effects that characterized in the past few years amidst the current challenging drought events faced this year.

As a nation, we don’t need to take long with this closure, as we will need to quickly harmony those teething issues so that we don’t lost export favour that Zambia has enjoyed over time.

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) recently was adopted into East African Community. Zambia can start losing out part of market share of this vast export standing market power.

This DRC market has such a huge appetizing demand for Zambia’s essential export, and we are exporting a large percentage of Zambian commodities right into Congo market, a market that is highly liquid with US Dollar inflow and booming mining activities.

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