President Banda Urges African Leaders to Fight Exploitation

LUSAKA, Zambia, December 15, 2010 - His Excellency, Mr. Rupiah Banda, President of the Republic of
Zambia, today called on leaders from across Africa to assist in the fight
against the illegal exploitation of natural resources.

As Chair of the International Conference on the Great Lakes
Region (ICGLR), President Banda is leading today's summit, which takes place
in Lusaka. The objective is to examine the problems associated with
exploiting natural resources, which has been a primary concern of the
conference throughout 2010. With Zambia's strong focus on mining, ensuring a
transparent and effective mining sector has been a central plank of the
current government's manifesto.

"This summit is the best way to eradicate the scourge of
illegal exploitation of, and trade in, natural resources. Our aim is to
achieve sustainable peace, security, stability and development in our
region," the President said.

President Banda added: "We are all aware that our regional
initiative can achieve its expected results only if it is complemented by
other existing regional and international initiatives. For this reason, the
ICGLR will collaborate with other regional organisations to ensure that its
initiative complements other endeavours to tackle this problem."

Several Heads of State and Government attended the opening of
the summit whose member states have already launched a regional initiative to
fight the illegal exploitation of natural resources.

The Eleven Heads of State and Government of the ICGLR came
together in 2004 and have since worked to resolve conflicts and instill
governance and accountability across the Great Lakes Region

ICGLR Member States are: Angola, Burundi, Central African
Republic, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya,
Rwanda, Soudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Dickson Jere, special assistant to the president, press and public relations, press at presidentbanda.com