Zambia committed to frugal management of resources, President Hichilema says in US

Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema says his administration is committed to fighting corruption to safeguard the Central African public resources.

He said the crusade against corruption has seen measures to address both the external and internal debts, a situation which was pleasing.

“We had to deal with clamping down on public expenditure extravagance which was excessive, and will continue to work hard to bring it down despite it not being popular among others who were used to it,” the President said.

Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema also said his administration is working to curb rigidities in the economy and factors hampering growth in the country.

President Hichilema said according to ZANIS’s Brian Siwisha that the first 15 month of his government was focusing on how to stabilise the country so that opportunities are created to address what was prevailing then.

Hichilema further said it was clearly evident that the happenings of the election period shows democratic tenets had deteriorated and were on the verge of collapse.

“The situation was critical and showed that there was a lack of democratic space in the country. We had to ensure that we first restore law and order, and factors affecting what were driving down the microeconomic situation,’’ he said.

President Hichilema said the first one year of his administration was to push factors that had negatively affected the ailing economy when his administration was ushered into power.

He said this during a discussion on how Zambia had managed to restore the development path of the economy organised by the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, United States of America on Tuesday, December 13, 2022.

In attendance were interest groups and moderated by Michelle Gavin,former Ambassador to Botswana.

Hichilema said the government had managed to pull down inflation and stabilise the foreign exchange rate to acceptable levels among other achievements scored.

President Hichilema disclosed that despite Zambia’s economy despite world and regional ones declining, the country is poised for growth at three percent in 2023.