Lusaka, Tuesday, 22 November, 2022 – The Public Private Dialogue Forum, (PPDF) has announced in Lusaka today that the Inaugural Steering Committee of the Forum, chaired by President Hakainde Hichilema will convene at State House on the morning of Wednesday 23 November 2022 to preside over business matters of a policy nature and unlock bottlenecks that are impeding business growth and job creation in most sectors. This follows the appointment of the Steering Committee by the President at the Frist Private Sector Day convened by the PPDF in July this year.
The Steering Committee of the PPDF is the highest organ of decision making and comprises the President Mr. Hakainde Hichilema as Chair, nine Government Ministers, Secretary to Cabinet, eight Presidents of Private Sector Associations, three prominent private sector persons, representatives from the International Finance Corporation, (IFC) of the World Bank, African Development Bank, (AfDB), the Chairperson of the Cooperating Partners Group and the PPDF Director General.
According to the PPDF Acting Director General, Rosetta Chabala, the Inaugural Steering Committee is expected to deliberate on business bottlenecks such as absence of local content requirement in the mining industry and the enforcement of SI No.35 of 2021: The Citizens Economic Empowerment, on transportation of heavy and bulk commodities by road. Among other issues to be addressed include Property valuation and Council rates for the Tourism, Manufacturing and Mining sectors, and the accelerated implementation of the Single Window system by the Business Regulatory Review Agency (BRRA).
Since July this year to date, the PPDF has convened dialogue meetings with public and private sectors through Technical Working Groups that are co-chaired by both sectors. The main focus of the Technical Working Groups is to identify bottlenecks that have hindered business growth and job creation for a long time in the Zambian Business environment, identify solutions that are benchmarked against best practices in the region and ensure that these are implemented by all implementing agencies in Government.
A media engagement and joint statement by PPDF and State House is expected at State House after the business of the day has been concluded.
Download the full Press Statement Below:
PRESS STATEMENT- PUBLIC PRIVATE DIALOGUE ANNOUNCES INAUGURAL STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING
