Canadian High Commissioner Visits State House

Canadian High Commissioner to Zambia, Her Excellency Pamela O'Donnel visited us at State House this morning for discussions that centred on our long bilateral relations, which are based on mutual respect, and founded on our Commonwealth ties.

We told High Commissioner O'Donnel to extend our thanks to the people and government of Canada, for rendering support to our people, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and other multilateral organisations that provide technical and financial support to the health sector among other areas.

Canadian investment in Zambia is mainly through mining which has contributed to Zambia's economic growth. It is in view of the above, that we look forward to Canadian assistance in creating value addition through local processing of minerals, than the exporting of material in raw form. We invited more Canadian investment in exploration of minerals in different parts of the country where preliminary testing has shown high mineral potential.

We also extended our gratitude to the Canadian government for technical assistance and training partnership under the Elsie Initiative which is a pilot project aimed at increasing women's participation in the United Nations (UN) peace keeping operations for our Defence and Security Forces.

Zambia and Canada collaborate on issues of Child Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) and in 2013 jointly co - led the first ever stand - alone

Resolution at the UN General Assembly on CEFM which was adopted. We will continue working with Canada in this important field and many others.

Hakainde Hichilema,

President of the Republic of Zambia.