Turkey to help Zambia reduce unemployment

The Government of Turkey has pledged to train Zambian youths in various fields including agriculture and impart entrepreneurship skills. This is in a bid to help Zambia reduce unemployment. Turkey’s Minister of Labour and Social Security Faruk Celik made the commitment during a bilateral meeting with Zambia’s Deputy Minister of Finance and National Planning Miles Sampa at Millennium UN Plaza Hotel in New York on Wednesday. “Regarding the issue you have brought up about youth unemployment and vocational training, we will be able to carry out the vocational training for the youths in Zambia or Turkey,” Mr Celik said. “If it will be in the field of agriculture it will be better to have these trainees come to Turkey and work with their Turkish partners and see model agricultural farms and take the experiences back to Zambia. It can be training of trainers.” Mr Celik explained that the Turkish Employment Agency, Ministry of National Education and the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Administration (TIKA) had a joint training programme in agriculture for African countries. In his remarks, Mr Sampa told Mr Celik that Zambia, like most countries worldwide, had a problem of unemployment, especially among the youths, and called for collaboration with Turkey to address the issue. He commended Turkey for offering to conduct a training of trainers of Zambian youths in agriculture. Mr Sampa said the trainees would be from all the 10 provinces in Zambia to ensure that the benefits trickle down to all parts of the country. The Deputy Minister said the training of trainers could take place in Turkey and the beneficiaries would be required to impart the knowledge in their compatriots. He urged Turkey to help build schools in all the 10 provinces of Zambia. “We are aware that you have US$200 million (about K1 trillion) earmarked for Least Developed Countries and landlocked developing countries. We are very keen to tap into that funding. We are hopeful we can meet your parameters as a country that can qualify to access that funding,” the Deputy Minister said. Zambia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Dr Mwaba Kasese-Bota and counselor Economics Irene Tembo accompanied Deputy Minister to the meeting. Mr Celik was accompanied to the meeting by his adviser Ali Aybey, Turkey’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ertuğrul Apakan, Turkish Employment Agency deputy general director Asim Goker Keskin, among others. Turkey has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. At the May 9-13, 2011 UN Conference for the Least Developed Countries (UN-LDC IV) in Istanbul, Turkey committed to make available US$200 million annually to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) for technical cooperation and scholarships. Turkey’s assistance to LDCs will be in development and technical cooperation, trade, investment, technology transfer, education, tourism, agriculture and forestry, energy, water, climate change, and other technical and policy-level cooperation. This is according to a statement issued by First Secretary for Press Permanent Mission of the Republic of Zambia to the United Nation, Chibaula Silwamba.