From WALLEN SIMWAKA in Beijing
AFRICA, with its youthful population, vast arable land and abundant natural resources is the future of the world’s new economic expansion giant, Professor Yang Baozhen, a Chinse career diplomat and development expert has observed.
And Prof Yang says Chinese has been creating more than 15 million jobs annually for more than its 11 million graduates, making the world’s second economic powerhouse, a leading nation in the development of human resource.
Prof Yang has advised African countries and their governments, including Zambia to work on prioritising the creation of specialised institutions within the strata of governance if the ambition of eradicating poverty was to be realised.
She stated of the more than 15 million new jobs being created annually, most were in fact from the private sector.
“African governments including Zambia should aspire to create specific institutions at different levels to ensure that poverty reduction programmes are implemented successfully. China is creating more than 15 million jobs annually for its more than 11 million graduates.
We have managed to eradicate poverty because of the deliberate policies of establishing institutions that directly deal with the challenges facing the people.
We have a population of 1.4 billion people and more than 260 million are the aged and we need the innovation of the young people,” Prof Yang said.
She was speaking to journalists from five African-speaking countries when she presented a paper themed; China’s eradication of Absolute Poverty and its Contribution to Humanity.
Prof Yang said Africa was the new economic growth zone because of its young population and vast and diverse natural resources.
She explained that to reduce poverty, specific institutions from the local government as well as central needed to be created to spearhead poverty reduction programmes in an efficient and effective system.
Prof Yang is a former Chinese Consul to France and a former senior development project officer of the Canadian International Development Agency.
She said on the path to eradicating absolute poverty, experts from various disciplines should be attached and deployed to help the implementation of programmes, stating that those that failed often got disciplined.
Prof Yang said there should zero tolerance to corruption and misapplication of resources, stating that those found wanting often faced the wrath of the law, including prosecution.
She explained that a committed and visionary leadership with a hands-on- approach was needed to drive the development agenda of any country.
