Economic Transformation Requires Healthy Workforce – Dlamini-Zuma

Economic transformation requires a healthy workforce, equipped with the knowledge and skills to be highly productive in the workplace and to generate innovations in technologies, processes, products and services, the chairperson of African Union Commission, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has said.
This was contained in her speech at the opening of the 9th African Economic Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Saturday.
According to her, technology, knowledge and innovations are critical to all areas of African transformation, from modernization of agriculture to having resilient and effective health systems in order to fight diseases, as is the case of Ebola today.
Dr Dlamini-Zuma noted that it was important to build and maintain infrastructure – transport, ICT, irrigation, storage and eneg for the development of industry, manufacturing and services and for agro-processing, beneficiation and value addition.
“We need skills, technology, knowledge and innovation to ensure democratic and responsive governance, that can deliver effective public services and to facilitate universal access to basic services such as food and nutrition, water and sanitation, shelter, health and education. To achieve these aspirations, Africa must invest in its most precious resource, its people to ensure that it can use its other resources – land, minerals, energy, oceanic resources, forests, etc – to modernise, integrate and build shared prosperity,” she added.