and the Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport, and the Pave Zambia 2000 project intended to create and repair major urban roads countrywide. Unfortunately this came at a huge debt cost that slowed the economy and compounded by corruption and the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in weak GDP growth and a recession in 2019 and 2020 respectively. Zambia's GDP had shrunk from US$29 billion to US$19 billion and its debt grew from 16% to 140% of GDP from 2010 through 2020. In November 2020, Zambia became Africa's first coronavirus-era default when it opted to bow out of a US$42.5 million eurobond repayment. From 2021 In August 2021, the Zambian populace ushered in a new government with a promise for jobs growth. Hakainde Hichilema's United Party for National Development (UPND) government delivered an ambitious budget that included an increase in the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) from ZMW 1.6 million (US$91 thousand) to ZMW 25.7 million (US$1.5 million) for each of Zambia's 156 constituencies and its decentralization in release to these constituencies. The expectation is that this will generate jobs growth in addition to the government's targeted employment of 30,000 new teachers and 11,200 health workers. In mid July 2022, the government recruited 30,496 Teachers. At the end of July 2022, 11,276 health workers, being doctors, nurses and ancillary staff such as drivers were recruited by the government. With a push for Zambia to be able to produce 3 million tonnes of Copper per annum within the next 10 years, the government reintroduced the deductibility of mineral royalty for corporate income tax assessment purposes. The results of these policy changes are yet to be seen. At the 2022 IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings, the World Bank announced it would fund projects worth US$560 million in Zambia in 2022. In July 2022, to address its debt challenges, the Zambian government engaged creditors of undisbursed loans to facilitate the formal cancellation of loans estimated to be about US$2.0 billion. Projects that were already ongoing would now be financed through government revenues. In early August 2022, the Zambia Development Agency, a quasi-government institution under the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry reported that it had recorded numerous investment pledges worth US$3.8 billion in the first half to 2022 targeting the agriculture, tourism, construction and mining sectors with a potential job market of 19,000. Public-Private Dialogue Forum (PPDF) In April 2022, Zambia launched a mechanism aimed at unlocking the