Movement for National Transformation(MNT) founding president Daniel Mvula Shimunza has emphasised the need for Zambians to  transform  their mindsets from mediocrity  to positive thinking, if the country is to achieve meaningful  economic development.

Reflecting on economic malaise  afflicting his compatriots, Mr  Shimunza said the root cause of the problem Zambia is facing is failure by its  citizens to transform their mindsets into positive thinking.

“What is a root of our  problems? One of the major problems that Zambia has  is our  mindset and this, I want you to highlight… If you find  Zambians, they are looking for jobs in the mining sector. Indians don’t look for jobs, Chinese, when they come here,  don’t look for jobs because they have a business mindset,” Mr Shimunza said.

He said the leadership of the country is the one that shapes the mindset of the nation.

“Our culture is shaped by our mindsets and leadership is the one that shapes the mindset of the nation. The last 50 years has shaped the leadership and culture of the country,” Mr Shimunza said.

He said MNT wants to transform the mindset of Zambians so that they begin to think that they can compete among great nations in the world.

“The all notion and idea of first world means that we should become the first country and not the relatively development of the  country or a middle income country. Let us have a mindset that makes us the best of the best and competitively the best all over the world. So MNT is  very strong on  advancing the agenda for   mindset change. Zambians should have new culture of mindset change .We need the new leadership that will inspire, motivate  and influence the new mindset and culture of  development to first world from third world,” Mr Shimunza said.

He regretted that the last 53 years Zambia has remained a third world country because that is a  mindset Zambians have.

“…Look at Agriculture, third world mindset, look at education, third world mindset, look at health, third world mindset and tourism,  third world mindset because that is a  mindset we have. We can’t rise as a country above our intellectual property. The intellectual property of the nation is the value of that nation. Which means the Gross Domestic Product(GDP) talks about the contributions of the citizen into the economic benefit of the country. So we are very strong as Movement for National Transformation on the human development index. We have to invest in civic education, as well as formal education so that we shape the new culture of politics and  new culture of the  standards of  living. The human resource should be able to diversify into several sectors so that Zambians can  develop Zambia,” Mr Shimunza said.