President Hakainde Hichilema Launches Public-Private Dialogue Forum

 The New Dawn Government has officially launched the Public-Private Dialogue Forum to accelerate economic growth in the country.

The initiative was formally launched by President Hakainde Hichilema at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka yesterday.

By using knowledge from successful policies in other countries, the president explained that the Zambian government will embrace the private sector through an open and transparent dialogue between the public and private sectors.

He outlined that the programme would tackle bottlenecks that have hindered the growth of the country enabling private entities to flag constraints within their industry.

The programme will act as a policy to encourage private sector development which will stimulate job creation, wealth creation and economic development.

Additionally, the president discussed that the mechanism would encourage a transparent dialogue between businesses and the government.  

He expressed his disappointment with previous governments over the lack of public-private sector engagement, stating, “We now want to actualize the potential of the private sector which has been idle for many years.”

The president also announced the implementation of a high-level steering committee to be deployed to spearhead the organisation.

The initiative reflects an optimistic future for the private sector with the mechanism reducing issues with supply and encouraging investment in the country.

At the end of his speech, the president thanked the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for assisting the government both financially and technically with the creation of the Public-Private Forum.

Carlos Katsuya, Senior IFC Country Manager, praised the government for the launch and re-affirmed its support for the initiative. He stated that the mechanism will bring economic growth and development through the creation of jobs and the raising of incomes.

 Photo: