Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Green party president Peter Sinkamba
Green party president Peter Sinkamba says the passing of the dual citizenship clause in the constitution bill presents great economic benefits to the country if correctly harnessed.
Mr. Sinkamba says Zambia, like many countries in the region has large diaspora overseas, with substantial Diaspora savings that could be mobilized for development financing citing that According to the World Bank, in addition to the large annual flows of remittances, migrants living in high income countries are estimated to hold savings in excess of $500 billion annually.
He says these savings represent a huge pool of funds that developing countries, including Zambia, can do much more to tap into.
He says the Green Party Diaspora Policy is structured to tap into diaspora taxes, remittances and savings adding that the entry point will be taking a census of Zambians in the diaspora.
Mr. Sinkamba says the next step will be to enter into bilateral agreements with host governments on taxes, remittances and savings, especially that dual citizenship is now legal in Zambia.
He states that the Green Party policy is intended to reverse the trend whereby official development assistance (ODA) is larger than remittance stressing that they plan to make diaspora remittances to be much more stable than either foreign direct investment or private financing flows.
He further points out that they also plan to ensure that government accounting and budgeting system in Zambia captures the remittances.