UN:Zambian economy should grow 8 percent to meet MDGs

United Nations resident coordinator Aeneas Chuma said that Zambia's annual economic growth should be at least 8 percent if the country is to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.

Chuma said here that Zambia is making progress towards achieving MDGs by 2015 in all respects especially in equal opportunity to education.

He told the Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) in an interview that the country needs to be extremely vigilant on types of investments that would lead to reaching the MDGs in the next nine years.

"But what government should be doing now is to focus on the type of growth that would reduce poverty," he said.

Chuma said there is need for a holistic approach towards scaling up the current development, which he said is another important economic factor.

The UN resident coordinator also said the current development should be consolidated and expanded to cover a large geographical area.

He urged the government to now pay more attention to boosting economic growth that would generate well paying jobs, which will translate into families being able to meet their basic requirements.

Last year, Zambia's economy grew by about 5.1 percent, which is said to be too low to significantly reduce the country's over 70 percent poverty levels.

Source: Xinhua