Thu, 11 Oct 2012 10:58:51 +0000
The decision by the PF government to nationalize Zamtel and the threat to nationalize ZANACO creates room for great concern, the former ruling MMD has said.
MMD president Dr Nevers Mumba said great caution should be exercised with regards to issues of nationalization because the decisions may cost the country huge sums of money and would have a negative impact on investor confidence.
He said government has also submitted to the Attorney General‘s office a memorandum on how best they can reverse the privatisation of 66 percent shares awarded to a Chinese firm in Mulungushi Textiles.
He said while in some cases there may be understandable reasons for some form of review, the manner and economical arguments underpinning this direction are unsound, unsustainable and impractical.
Dr Mumba said the PF was currently celebrating and boasting about the successful floating of the Eurobond as it they were singularly responsible for its success.
“Let me remind them and the Zambian people that the idea of the Euro Bond was an MMD idea, and that it has been successfully issued on the basis of the strong economic performance of the Zambian economy and the prudent Macro Economic management of the MMD in the last Twelve (12) years of its governance up to 2011.
“If fact, all the rating agencies during the famous ‘ROAD SHOW’ undertaken by the PF towards the assessment of the Euro Bond, expressed concern at the policy direction and inconsistencies of the government in the last one year.
“The government needs to be reminded that the Bond has been issued on the basis of a market driven economy that will enable a sufficient rate of return or at best a good enough yield in order to pay back the Loan,” he said.
Dr Mumba warned that if the socialist direction of the PF will be entrenched, there was a great danger, that this loan acquisition may end up much like the loans that we borrowed in the 1970s and 80’s which later on developed in to a colossal debt of 7billion dollars that had chocked the country’s economy to near death.
He said as a party it believes that the private sector was the best engine for a thriving and productive economy in the 21st century.
“We strongly believe in the capacity of a free market economy to deepen and expand wealth as has been the case in the last 12 years of this country. Government should only intervene in instances where the market has failed and in respect to the redistribution of created wealth. We do not subscribe to “interference” by government in the market,” he said.
