Sata invited for economic bilateral visit to US

The Zambia News and Information Service (ZANIS) quoted Minister of Foreign Affairs Given Lubinda,as saying that the Barrack Obama administration has invited Sata to travel to that country to sign the millennium challenge compact, which is a development agreement of the Millennium Challenge Cooperation (MCC) when it is ready.
Lubinda, currently visiting the US, said the idea came up during meetings he held with senior officials from the Obama administration. Among those who attended the meeting include Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, Deputy Assistnt Secretary of State for African Affairs Reuben Briget and Tyler Beckelma, Director for African Affairs at the White House, according to ZANIS.
“We also discussed issues of continued cooperation politically and Mr Briget, requested if we could ask President Michael Sata to consider coming to the United States of America to sign the compact of the MCC,” Lubinda was quoted as saying by the paper.
Currently, Secretary to the Treasury in the Zambian government, Fredson Yamba is leading a delegation which is having technical negotiations of the Millennium Challenge Account for Zambia involving $354 million for a water and sanitation project in Lusaka, the Zambian capital.
He further said various issues of mutual interest such as democracy, diplomacy, increased trade between the two countries and general bilateral co-operation were discussed during the meeting.
The US government, he said, also expressed happiness with Zambia’s democratic and economic advancements hence its desire to exchange high profile personality visits. The Zambian government has since invited Obama to visit the southern African nation later this year, he added.
Meanwhile, the Zambian government has asked the US to relax its harsh regulations on the importation of wildlife trophies such as ivory into their market, according to ZANIS.
The Zambian minister said relaxing regulations of the importation of game trophies from Zambia to the US will enable the African country to freely sell it’s trophies and earn revenue that will help conserve wildlife and benefit communities living in game management areas.
He further said there was need to downgrade the elephant from appendix one to appendix two of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) in order to enable Zambia sell the largest mammal in the country for hunting.
The animals in appendix one of the CITES are considered endangered and threatened with extinction and therefore cannot be sold for hunting but be conserved and protected jealously.
The elephant in Zambia was about two decades ago classified into appendix one of CITES at the time the population of the animal in the country was 19 000.
“Currently Zambia has over 28 000 elephants and yet we are not allowed to trade trophy I these elephants,” he added. The Zambian minister and his entourage has been in the US since 31 January 2012 attending various meetings with government officials and the Safari Club International meetings and convention which was held in Las Vegas last week. – AFP.