Sichinga Says He’s In Bad Mood After Losing To Sampa

Robert Sichinga says he is in a bad mood after losing the PF presidential bid at the general conference on Monday.
  And Sichinga mocked the meeting that installed Edgar Lungu as party president in Kabwe, describing it as a mess.  Sichinga, who is commerce minister, said he was in a bad mood after failing to make it at the just-ended PF general conference to win the presidency which was scooped by his deputy and Matero member of parliament Miles Sampa.  “I am not in a good mood having failed as a presidential aspiriant. But the other PF conference (that elected Lungu) was declared null and void…what a mess,” Sichinga said, causing laughter to the crowd during the launch of Private Enterprise Programme-Zambia (PEP-Z) in Lusaka on Wednesday.  “But whether I will not have this job after January 20 or not, it is the right thing to grow our economy.
 I am not sure if I will have this job after that,” he repeatedly said as the audience, mainly comprising business executives, continued laughing.  Sichinga said PEP-Z should not come on the Zambian market to duplicate what was already being done, but that it should find new innovations of complementing efforts of existing players. 
He said PEP-Z should play a role in ensuring that the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) were enhanced in producing goods that would compete on the regional market.  “Do not try to run programmes for us in this country. You are not equipped to understand our business… but let us also look at import substitution.
For example we are importing pineapples from South Africa when we have better pineapples from Mwinilunga, better honey from Kabompo, groundnuts from Eastern Province, fresh water fish from Mongu and Mpulungu… we should not be importing these things,” said Sichinga.    PEP-Z is a five-year project funded by the United Kingdom government’s Department for International Development (DfID) aimed at building and strengthening capacities of Zambian MSMEs. 
And UK permanent secretary for DFID Mark Lowcock said Zambia’s sustainability of democracy over the years had led to economic growth of over six per cent.  “Economic management has been great, but the economic growth has not created enough jobs. Zambia needs to have a much broader economic story that is inclusive… fundamentally; the long term [solution] to address poverty is economic development,” said Lowcock. 
And both PEP-Z programme manager, Bayo Akindeinde and PEZ-Z manager-business linkages Andrew Kambobe emphasised that their organisation was not on the Zambian market to duplicate or compete with existing players but to complement.