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Profile of Zambia
October 28, 1997
Web posted at: 12:56 p.m. EST (1756 GMT)In this report:
- Statistics
- Economy
- Modern history
POPULATION: 9.65 million (1996), divided into 73 ethnic groups. The biggest is the Bemba tribe in the north. Zambia is among the most urbanized countries in Africa with over 40 percent living in towns and cities. Its population is growing at 3.5 percent annually.
CAPITAL: Lusaka, population of about one million in 1990. Other major towns are Ndola and Kitwe on the copper belt.
AREA: 752,614 sq. km. Landlocked, it borders (clockwise from north) Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and Angola.
ARMED FORCES: Army -- 15,000 men, 30 tanks; air force -- 1,200 men, 25 fighter jets; paramilitary police -- 1,200 men.
A L S O :
Zambia's Chiluba defeats coup attempt
Economy
Zambia is seen as one of the most exciting emerging markets in southern Africa, with massive privatization plans. President Frederick Chiluba, who took over from socialist-oriented Kenneth Kaunda in 1991, speeded up free-market reforms and has privatized about half the state-owned concerns, but the biggest, copper producer ZCCM, is still to come.
His reforms, after decades of fixed commodity prices and exchange controls under command-economy government, have won accolades from the World Bank but brought hardship for ordinary Zambians. Annual per capita income was last estimated at $350.
Inflation is about 44 percent but is seen to be slowing, though the currency outlook is worsening. The current account deficit remains large, and is predicted at around $535 million this year. Foreign debt of $7 billion is Zambia's biggest burden.
Relations with foreign aid donors remain delicate after donors threatened to freeze balance of payments support this year in protest at constitutional changes by the government seen as damaging democracy.
But the 1997 budget assumes that donors will provide the funds for one-third of proposed government spending, which suggests that Zambia expects relations with them to improve substantially.
Zambia has had a food deficit since 1992, when most of southern Africa was hit by drought.
It is one of the biggest producers of copper and cobalt, which account for over 90 percent of foreign exchange revenue, though production has fallen steadily. Copper production fell 3.5 percent to 132,400 tons in the first five months of 1997 from a year earlier.
Modern history
The former British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia became independent on October 24, 1964.
Kaunda, who headed the ruling United National Independence Party (UNIP), governed virtually unopposed for 27 years.
He introduced one-party rule in 1973 and stood for the presidency unopposed until the end of the Cold War and the collapse of Soviet-led communism forced him to agree to free elections.
He lost in October 1991 to veteran trade unionist Frederick Chiluba, of the main opposition Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD).
In 1995, Kaunda re-entered politics after a three-year retirement and was elected president of UNIP.
Unemployment and inflation were the opposition's main campaign weapons against the MMD, and Kaunda promised to reintroduce subsidies and stop privatization.
But the commitment of Chiluba's MMD to democracy showed cracks when his government pushed through constitutional changes before last year's national elections which effectively banned Kaunda from standing on the ground that his parents were born outside the country.
Western donors suspended aid in protest against the constitutional changes, which they said were undemocratic, sparking conflict within aid agencies for whom Zambia is an example of successful structural adjustment in Africa.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Zambia's Chiluba defeats coup attempt - October 28, 1997
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