Zambia victim of lop-sided growth – UN report

Sat, 04 Mar 2017 09:02:03 +0000

ZAMBIA’S economic growth in the last 10 years has been concentrated on capital intensive industries which has led to more urban development than in rural areas, the United Nations Zambia Analysis summary has disclosed.

According to the findings, economic growth has been concentrated on industries such as construction, mining and transport. The report revealed that the Zambian economy had relied heavily on copper mining which accounted for 70 percent of the export earnings but employed less than two percent of the population. The findings further revealed that economic growth had taken place in urban areas while the poorest lived in remote areas that were barely connected to markets and the cash economy.

Moreover, economic growth has been labour intensive particularly in the agriculture and informal sectors which mainly comprised of the poor.  It said Zambia had been blessed with abundant natural resources but the country still faced the challenge of economic diversification which remained a hindrance to development. The report revealed that the majority of people in rural and some parts of urban areas relied on agriculture as their main source of incomes. Agriculture was therefore discovered to be the sector with the most potential for driving broad-based and inclusive economic growth followed by trade within both the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa  (COMESA) trading blocks.