President Sata to focuse on Luapula’s develoment

PRESIDENT Sata says time has come for Luapula Province to claim its economic potential.
He said the province will no longer lag in terms of development because Government has put in place measures to develop the area.
The President said this in a speech read for him by Chiefs and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkandu Luo during the 50th Umutomboko Ceremony of the Lunda people.
“I am here to assure you that time has come for all of us to bid farewell to the days when this province was a sleeping giant,” he said.
President Sata said the people of Luapula had for a long time been cut off from markets for their produce, as well as capital investment because of poor road infrastructure.
He said through careful allocation of resources to strategic projects, the province is on its way to becoming a shining example of real development in Zambia.
“Luapula Province is certainly the destination of all would-be and foreign investors,” he said.
President Sata said the province has a total road network of 4,000 kilometres which has been ear-marked for rapid road construction, pot-hole mending, edge repairing, road marking and installation of road signs.
And Senior Chief Mwata Kazembe, through his spokesperson Chriticles Mwansa, thanked Government for the work done on the main road, which for years had challenges in attracting people to activity in the province, including the attendance of the ceremony.
Senior Chief Mwata Kazembe said he is happy that the people’s long-time cry, the Pedicle Road, has now received attention.
He thanked the leadership of the Democratic Republic of Congo for granting permission to the Zambian government to work on the road.
Senior Chief Mwata Kazembe thanked Government for making Mwansabombwe a district,  adding that he hoped value addition would now be brought to the area.