PUBLIC PRIVATE DIALOGUE FORUM (PPDF) IN FIRST QUARTER TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP (TWG) MEETINGS AND JOBS CAMPAIGN CONSULTATIVE MEETINGS.
Lusaka, Thursday, 13 March, 2025 – The PPDF has commenced its first-quarter Technical Working Group (TWG) and consultative meetings for 2025, bringing together key stakeholders from various sectors, including Agriculture, Energy, Financial Services, ICT & Digitalization, Media, Manufacturing, Mining, and Tourism, to address policy, regulatory issues and unlocking of the job market.
The PPDF has also embarked on an ambitious strategy consultative meeting for the jobs campaign, whose co-purpose is to unlock Zambia’s job market for the youth.
The series of meetings began by considering submissions in the Media Sub-Technical Working Group on Thursday, 20th February 2025, with discussions focused on unregulated advertising rates from media buying agencies, the re-introduction of the Zambia Media Trust Fund to support media organisations in Zambia with a pool of funding and Technical Assistance, lack of training opportunities for private sector journalists, and editorial independence for media practitioners and organisations.
Following this, the Financial Services TWG convened on Tuesday, 4th March 2025, where critical matters were tabled and discussed. These included the amendments to the Cyber Crime and Cyber Security Act, implementation of the Data Protection Act, the Pawn Brokers and Money Lenders Bill 2025, pension contributions for mortgage financing, and amendments by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) to insurance sector regulations.
On Friday, 7th March 2025, the Energy Sector TWG was held. The energy TWG addressed key policy issues such as VAT refunds for energy projects, currency regulations in the energy sector, review of the customs handbook for solar photovoltaic products, review of the tax code for energy sector incentives in comparison to the mining sector, review of the administration of water permits, fee alignment to match the generation capacity (in KWh) of projects, promotion of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the energy sector, and the review of implementation agreements to address bankability of projects and innovations in the Energy sector.
The PPDF encourages all stakeholders to participate in the TWG meetings to ensure inclusivity in the dialogue process. The PPDF further emphasizes the need for stakeholders to provide evidence-based information and conduct prior research to understand the issues under discussion.
The calendar for upcoming TWG meetings is available on the PPDF website: www.ppdf.org.zm. Notable upcoming meetings include the Tourism TWG on Thursday, 13th March 2025 at 09:00 hours at Southern Sun Hotel and the Mining TWG on Thursday, 20th March 2025 with the venue to be advised.
In 2025, the PPDF has scheduled one TWG meeting per quarter as part of its commitment to fostering dialogue, collaboration and partnerships between the public and private sectors. Added to this the PPDF will hold adhoc dialogue meetings to address cross-cutting matters on tax reviews, labour matters, infrastructure planning and development, rates and licenses, and gender matters. This year, the PPDF’s has aligned its focus to support government priority reforms in the Agriculture, Energy, Financial Services, Gender, Health, ICT & Digitalization, Media, Manufacturing, Mining, Tourism, and SME sectors.
Additionally, the Jobs Campaign 2025–2027 strategy is in phase one of the consultative stage. As a first step in this initiative, the PPDF held the Jobs Campaign Strategic Plan consultative meeting on 5th March 2025 with stakeholders from the public sector, planning units to inform the strategic plan. The objective of the meeting was to provide input into the strategic plan and serve as a platform for sharing knowledge on policies, regulations, and programs implemented by the Government to unlock the job market for the youth, both for knowledge and skills competence. Two more consultative meetings are scheduled to be undertaken with youth representatives and the private sector to ensure a more inclusive approach to shaping the strategy, before submission to Cabinet for higher level consultative meetings and implementation.
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