Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Former Finance Minister Katele Kalumba says talk on how much the country needs to tax the mining sector has now become a sterile and worked-out debate.
Dr. Kalumba says the debate of how much the country’s mines need to be taxed or not taxed is now wasting time for the country to develop.
Dr Kalumba has told Qfm News by telephone that the country should now begin thinking of other forms of earning revenue from activities such as salt mining and from Tourism and Agriculture sectors.
He says it is saddening to see Zambia failing to use Agriculture to benefit from a simple market opportunity provided by the US initiative African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
Dr Kalumba says it is high time Zambia woke up and rose from it pre-industry times sleep especially that the country is part of the information technology world.
He states that his thoughts of how Zambia should proceed in its development agenda are futurist, stating there is need to think of new opportunities for the country to develop.
Dr Kalumba says this is why he thinks there should be more action than talk if Zambia is going to rise from the pre-industry mind set which was based on a wrong industrial formula.
And Dr. Kalumba has observed that the country has too many over-righteous individuals who are costing the country tremendously.
He says these over-righteous individuals are also moral crusaders who themselves are highly compromised.
Dr. Kalumba says having served as Finance Minister before; he understands that turning around a country’s economy from a negative 2 percent to a positive 4.5 percent at the end of his tenure is not easy.
He says it was not also easy for other people that have held the position of Finance Minister and therefore it should be expected that it has now become easy for the current Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda.