THE Continental Leadership Research Institute (CLRI) says there is need to have career diplomats to ensure the country yields tangible results from having different missions and embassies across the world.

Executive director Mundia Hakoola said the current form of affairs where there were very few career diplomats and a lot of cadres in foreign service was causing stress on the national treasury.

Hakoola said the country had not yielded the intended results of the essence of having foreign missions aboard.

“Some of these cadres that have been deployed in these missions have taken a national holiday and there are no professional and economic benefits for the Zambian tax payer,” he said.

CLRI took time to conduct an assessment of the importance of Zambia’s embassies and missions abroad and the institute had some concerns that needs to be addressed by all political parties wishing to form government.

“There is need to have career diplomats to ensure that the country yields tangible results from having different missions and embassies across the world,” he said.

Hakoola said there was need to conduct an audit or evaluation on all Zambian embassies across the world and assess their contribution towards the country yielding mission goals, the ability to bring foreign direct investments (FDIs) and meeting different benchmarks of state importance.

He said there was need for more emphasis on economic diplomacy globally and to achieve that, there had to be serious evaluation on what strategies those wishing to form government would put in place to achieve the goals.

“For instance, Zambia is part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Common Market for East and Southern African (COMESA) and is currently hosting the secretariat for COMESA. Despite this, the country has not been able to fully utilise the membership with SADC and COMESA. In fact, the FDIs from the two bodies has been minimal on the national economy despite paying high annual subscription fees,” he said.

Hakoola called on all those wishing to form government to have clear policies on the issues that had been raised.

He recommended that an Act of parliament be enacted that allows career diplomats to be the ones to serve in Zambian missions aboard.

Hakoola said a comparison of countries that had enacted such an Act had proved that these countries were far ahead in their diplomatic strategies in all aspects.