By Kellys Kaunda
CAN A UPND ECONOMY DELIVER A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY AND AN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IN EACH PROVINCE?

Not it can’t and it won’t. Reason? Its economic philosophy. Macroeconomic stability is the priority. This means watching public expenditure carefully against anything that might introduce inflationary pressures in the economy or threaten debt sustainability.

Remember the February discussions the Zambian government held with the IMF staff here in Lusaka? The latter raised concerns about lingering possible inflationary sources such as the massive recruitment of public service workers.

This concern may have been heeded because I understand the planned recruitment of around 2000 teachers was placed on hold.

Just pose for a moment and think about this year’s election. There’s no money to write home about as would be expected in most elections.

Political parties, candidates and ECZ would normally spend big time but not this time around.  Money is very tight because the UPND government is running a tight ship as the foundation of its economic philosophy.

The public expenditure you will see with this philosophy is something like 2MW solar power plants per constituency because returns on these investments are clear and immediate as the public will pay for electricity generated.

But projects such as universities and international airports do not promise immediate returns. In fact, for public universities, these are primarily social investments with much long-term benefits. They will expand the country’s debt burden which will go against the UPND government’s core economic beliefs.

When this government completed its IMF program successfully, it asked the Fund for another program – this time aimed at economic growth and employment creation. The Fund agreed in principle but suggested that the discussion is picked up after the August 13 elections.

This was because the next program would need commitments based on a new set of public policies to be executed over a period of time. Only a government with a new five-year-mandate could be engaged in such discussions.

The UPND government would like to go into these discussions with bankable proposals such as the 10,000MW of power; 1billion dollars worth of beef exports; 3 million tonnes of copper production; etc. This will dovetail with the IMF idea of economic growth and employment creation following the recent economic stabilization phase.

Assuming that you agree with my reasoning, the next logical question you may ask is: why then would Hichilema promise a public university and an international airport per province?

Your guess is as good as mine.
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