Perhaps to emphasise President Rupiah Banda's view that the Indaba was not political his Commerce minister Felix Mutati joined the debate to allay such fears. In a report published by the
Times of Zambia on April 1, 2009 Mutati told the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) that government will not dictate the agenda for the meeting:
COMMERCE, Trade and Industry Minister Felix Mutati has assured that the Government will not dictate the agenda at this weekend’s indaba. Mr Mutati said March 31, 2009 on Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation’s National Watch programme that the Government would go to the meeting with an open mind. He said the indaba was meant to look at the way forward in the midst of the global financial crisis and more than 500 people were expected to attend in order to have a wide participation.“The Government will be open and will not dictate and say this is what we want because that will defeat the purpose of holding the indaba,” he said.
He said the indaba, which is scheduled for April 4 - 5, 2009, should be a platform of unity and not finger-pointing because there was need to come out more focused. He said the credit crunch was a wake-up call for Zambia to ensure that the economic diversification was expedited through agriculture, manufacturing and industrialisation. He said the indaba was significant because collective wisdom could help Zambia survive the crunch. He advised that the meeting should also explore ways and means of coming up with consistency in policy implementation.
Bank of Zambia (BoZ) deputy governor for operations Denny Kalyalya said although the credit crunch was a global problem, each country was preparing how it would meet the challenges. He said since the crisis started as a financial problem, BoZ wanted to see that the Zambian financial sector was stable and well organised.
Dr Kalyalya said BoZ wanted to hear from stakeholders at the indaba how to move the economy forward because it was time to respond. He said the central bank wanted to see the issue of economic diversification move a step further as a result of the indaba.
Zambia Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ZACCI) chief executive officer Justin Chisulo said the benefit of the indaba was that it would discuss the country’s opportunities in the middle of the financial crisis. Mr Chisulo said that ZACCI would take its experience to the indaba especially that the private sector was feeling the effects of the crisis and had some solutions. He said the crisis was an opportunity to do something in a different way and the indaba was a good environment because it would galvanise many people.
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