2 May 2008
Ndola — PRESIDENT Mwanawasa has urged the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) to accelerate the process of developing guidelines for the disbursement of empowerment funds by June.
Speaking when he officiated during this year's Labour Day celebrations at the Freedom Statue in Lusaka yesterday, Dr Mwanawasa said the Government had always emphasised the need to put money in people's pockets with the conviction that it would help reduce poverty.
This year's theme was 'Economic Empowerment Through Decent Work and Social Justice'.
"In this regard the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) is one such channel we are using to achieve this. It is important that my fellow employees take advantage of this initiative so that we can elevate ourselves from being employees to becoming employers," he said.
The President said the move to set up the CEEC was necessary if Zambia was to make positive and tangible strides in the reduction of unemployment levels.
Dr Mwanawasa said the CEEC had so far received a number of applications for access to the funds.
This, he said, was encouraging as it showed how serious and committed the people were to the cause of redeeming themselves from the shackles of poverty and dependence.
He, however, cautioned would-be beneficiaries of the funds to put the money given to them to good use.
"This money should not be squandered. The opportunity to access empowerment funds may only come once. Zambians must, therefore, use the opportunity to advance themselves socially and economically," he said.
Dr Mwanawasa invited the employees to make proposals to the CEEC on how best the process of empowerment could be executed.
He said the initiative required the support and participation of everyone regardless of their position in society.
He urged the CEEC to devise means and ways that would ensure that all citizens in society, regardless of their status, accessed the funds.
"If you can access land in your village or elsewhere and start cultivating, you will discover that there is money in farming activities even in rural areas. I am a farmer myself and I am talking from experience," he said.
On decent work, the President said the Government had continued to register tremendous increase in both local and foreign investment. This had led to economic boom that was creating jobs for many Zambians.
Dr Mwanawasa said to address this challenge arising from job creation, the Government had taken urgent and necessary steps to ensure that the jobs were decent.
Zambia had also ratified major conventions promoting the fundamental principle and rights at work places.
He said with a strengthened labour and factory inspectorate, the Government would improve its capacity to enforce the laws that protected workers' rights and occupational health and safety.
"As we implement the Decent Work programme, the challenge before us is to extend the Government's enforcement capacity to the informal sector which accounts for 80 per cent of the labour force," he said.
Dr Mwanawasa said the Government would continue to work closely with the private sector in the creation of an enabling environment that would lead to the creation of sustainable and decent jobs.
Dr Mwanawasa said in order to achieve this goal, the Government and social partners would continue to play a pivotal role on matters of economic development through programmes being initiated by the Zambia Development Agency and the CEEC.
He said the Government had started the collection of data for this year's labour force survey.
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