Thu, 13 Jul 2017 10:18:46 +0000
By CHIKUMBI KATEBE
THE move to invoke Article 31 of the Constitution is to enhance security measures that will protect life and preserve investments in Zambia, says Finance Minister Felix Mutati.
Mr Mutati said Tuesday’s decision by Parliament to endorse President Edgar Lungu’s proclamation to invoke Article 31 was meant to safeguard and assure the people that Government was on top of the situation to ensure security remains intact without such threats to life and property.
This is contained in a statement issued by the first Secretary for press and tourism at the Zambian Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Inutu Mwanza.
According to the statement, the minister was happy that the President had put up measures that would protect investments in Zambia, and that with the increased number of bond investors who have placed money in Zambian securities, there was need to secure the investor confidence exhibited in the Zambian economy.
He said the perception that investor confidence would be affected with the proclamation was a misconception from an economic perceptive, the concerns that investor confidence will be lost as a result of the proclamation by President LUNGU is merely a perception.
“What the President has merely done is put measures that will not only protect life but also preserve people’s investments in the country.
“The freedom that investors have been enjoying will continue to be enjoyed regardless of the invocation of Article 31,” he said.
Mr Mutati was speaking at Bole International Airport on his way back home from Brussels where he had been attending a meeting of the World Customs Organization.
Ms Mwanza said the minister explained that the meeting in Brussels addressed transit guidelines to be used as a practical tool by land locked countries to assess their national and regional transit regimes.
He emphasized the need for cutting down on transit time as a measure that would speed up economic growth that “we need to minimize transit times and stop locking economies in trucks that remain locked up at borders.” Mr Mutati has announced that Zambia was selected as the first country in Africa where the transit guidelines would be piloted and that the introduction of the one-stop-border post at Nakonde and Chirundu borders were already measures that Zambian had put in place to reduce transit times.
He disclosed that Government was already negotiating with the Democratic Republic of Congo on the possible construction of a one-stop-boarder t at entry points with that country.
