African Leaders committed to improving economies-President Lungu

SOURCE- $Zambia_Daily_Mail—————–President Edgar Lungu has said African leaders have shown a lot of commitment and genuineness towards improving the economies of their countries.

President Lungu said after a close contact with other heads of state and government at the just ended 24^th African Union summit in Addis Ababa, that he has realised that the leaders of various countries in Africa genuinely desired to improve their economies.

He said as he described his experience at the summit that his government will right away work towards developing the country.

The President was talking to Zambian journalists today shortly before he left Ethiopia for Zambia.

He said the theme of the 24^th AU summit, which is ‘2015, year of women empowerment and development in Africa towards agenda 2063’, suggests that there was no time to relax for him and his administration.

And President Lungu has stressed that integrating with regional economic groupings and countries was important for accelerating economic and social development in the country.

He noted that Zambia will therefore continue to cooperate with regional groupings such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and other bodies towards development.

While at the summit, the President held closed door meetings and bilateral talks with leaders of different countries and groupings.

Meanwhile, President Lungu has urged media heads in Zambia to run their institutions as a business in order to redeem them from financial difficulties.

He said although there was bureaucracy in government media institutions, public institutions such as the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC), Zambia Daily Mail and the Times of Zambia should isolate themselves from bureaucratic procedures.

He pointed out that by isolating themselves from bureaucracy and by having good managers, public media institutions will run as viable business minded companies.

The President also urged the media to be innovative by exploring new business ideas that would enhance their operations and profitability.

“For me, I will let the media run as businesses to try and improve,” he said in answering a question on what his administration will do to address financial difficulties which public media institutions in Zambia were faced with.  

President Lungu has also urged journalists to use palatable language when talking to their sources so that they do not become hostile.

“Let us be temperate when talking to other people as media. Let us use sober language,” he advised.