By Masuzyo Chakwe

THE Continental Leadership Research Institute (CLRI) says Zambia’s foreign policy should attract Foreign Direct Investment and promote economic diplomacy.

Executive director Mundia Hakoola noted that the trips that President Hakainde Hichilema had made from the time he took oath of office were expected because the onus was on the country with a new President to visit the region and key strategic countries around the world to introduce himself and also assure those countries of continued sound diplomatic ties.

Hakoola said the trips were also meant to provide direction on the foreign policy that the country would take.

“It is also an unwritten rule that the new President is the one to visit and not the other way round. So far, the President has done well in repositioning Zambia’s international outlook with issues such as default on international loan repayments, corruption among others, that have been a source of concern by international community,” he said.

“The President is not only the chief diplomat but also the chief marketing officer of the country both internally and aboard. It is therefore imperative that these trips yield the much-needed results of attracting foreign direct investments and economic diplomacy for the country.”

He said there was therefore a burden of reasonability on Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other relevant government departments to ensure that they make follow-up programmes in all countries visited and directly promote FDI and economic diplomacy.

“For instance, the President recently came from Dubai, one of the things we should be interested in is the blueprint of how Dubai developed in a short period of time and also take a leaf from the Asian Tigers and what lessons we can learn,” he said.

“CLRI is therefore of the view that the following needs to be incorporated in the foreign policy to ensure guaranteed benefits; have career and skilled diplomats who can ensure that FDIs and economic diplomacy is achieved; capacity building for development experts in key ministries (study developmental models such as that of Dubai and Asian Tigers and get what is workable for implementation in Zambia); and create an enabling environment for local entrepreneurs to export goods to regional and international markets through incentives that can reduce cost of production.”

Hakoola said there was also need for the utilisation of the economic zones to promote investments in the country through intensive marketing programmes.

“Promote strategic industries that can supply processed products to regional markets. Aggressively market the tourism sector and other key sectors that are attractive. Maintain sound mining policies that are attractive to investors but also benefit the

local people. Take advantage of regional and international markets where Zambia is party to such as SADC, COMESA, AGOWA, etc. to ensure penetration and access these markets,” said Hakoola.

“Invest in programmes that can fund and promote scientific research on efficient policies for the development. CLRI recognises that achieving this requires hard work and not the business-as-usual kind of mindset. It requires strategic thinking outside the ordinary and actually creating a model that is not a copy and paste but model that works for Zambia.”