Zambia's economic development should go with meaningful employment creation to enable a significant number of people to move and stay out of poverty, local media cited a UN envoy as saying Saturday.

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) country representative Aeneas Chuma said the Zambian government should have wider space and flexibility to develop homegrown policies and invest public resources in poverty reduction if the country was to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.

The UN envoy made the remarks at a workshop presentation of " Economic Policies for Growth, Employment and Poverty Reduction: Case Study for Zambia" in Lusaka on Friday.

He said policy dialogue on growth should now focus on the quality rather than quantum.

"Experience has shown that this is only possible if policies directly and deliberately target the areas that the poor live in, the skills they possess with a view to improving them and the sectors they can add the maximum value," local newspaper Times of Zambia quoted Chuma as saying.

He further noted that the government should invest public funds in sectors that have high potential to reduce poverty.

The one-day workshop was organized by the Center for Development Policy and Research (CDPR) together with University of London and UNDP in a bid to provide policy support to the Zambian government in the area of pro-poor economic growth.

Source: Xinhua