5,000 new jobs created

GOVERNMENT has created 5,391 new jobs in the manufacturing industry and 12 other sectors of the economy through foreign direct investment (FDI).

Secretary to the Treasury Fredson Yamba said in a progress report released to the Daily Mail in Kitwe yesterday that the manufacturing sector contributed the highest number of jobs at 2,567 followed by agriculture which created 656 jobs.

Mr Yamba said the thousands of jobs Government has created shows that the country is attracting FDI in all its priority areas.

He named construction, energy, education, finance, health, information technology, mining, real estate, tourism, service and transport as the other sectors that have created jobs for Zambians.

“Under the framework of the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA), the country was able to actualise 23 percent of the pledged investments. These actualised investments resulted in the creation of 5,391 jobs against the pledged 9,746 jobs,” Mr Yamba said.

The total monetary investment amounted to US$1,499 million.
Meanwhile, in an effort to develop rural resource base industry for micro, small and medium-scale enterprises, the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry in collaboration with the ZDA and Citizens

Economic Empowerment Commission have identified 15 industries with resources that would be used in developing value-added products in rural areas.
These include beef, cassava, cotton, dairy, fish, fruit, gemstone, groundnuts, honey, palm oil, pineapple, poultry, rice, stock feed and timber.

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