fund ’ s investments. by setting up the fund, it became possible to establish a path for production of oil and gas that is independent of the profile for petroleum revenue spending. furthermore, to effectively shield the non - oil economy, and to make sure that private sector investment decisions could be made independently of the public sector ’ s saving of petroleum wealth, the fund is only invested abroad. this also enhances the expected return on government wealth and reduces the risk. the alternative to a fund would have been to directly regulate production by putting a conservative upper limit on annual extraction. this was attempted in the 1970s and - 80s. at that time, we had a production ceiling of 90 million standard cubic metres per year. this approach was abandoned in the 1980s. today, the government steers exploration activities and awards production licenses, but has no explicit production target. since the mid - 1990s, total petroleum production has been around 250 million standard cubic metres per year. the fund mechanism the fund is by law fully integrated with the government budget, and the same priorities are imposed on spending from the fund as on any other government spending. this means that the entire petroleum revenues are transferred to the fund. an amount equal to the non - oil budget deficit is then transferred to the fiscal budget. the mechanism ensures that the accumulation of capital in the fund is equal to government net financial savings. there is no corresponding increase in liabilities. furthermore, legislation prohibits use of fund money for purposes not prioritised in the regular budget processes. there is no hidden use of oil money, or any use for special purposes. the fund is strictly and effectively “ out of bounds ” to special interests. in 2001, the norwegian parliament approved new fiscal policy guidelines stipulating that the annual transfer from the fund to the fiscal budget – that is annual spending of oil money – should correspond to the expected real return on the fund. the expected real return is estimated at 4 per cent. the point of reference for the spending rule is a normal cyclical situation. in the event of particularly high capacity utilisation, spending should be lower than 4 per cent, whereas in a cyclical downturn, somewhat higher spending may be appropriate. the intention is for this wealth to be transferred to future generations, and that each generation should only spend the returns. the rule gives weight to long - term considerations when addressing current economic policy challenges. the rule also helps stabilise exchange rate expectations. the fiscal rule has the advantage of having intuitive appeal,

society, labour unions, investor groups, etc. as earlier alluded to, one of the tenets of good corporate citizenship is transparency and accountability. on the part of the councils, the major challenge they face in this regard is the delivery of quality service to their clients, which is underpinned by better management of resources. in conclusion, chairperson, ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of enhancing the competitiveness of business and maximise the value of wealth creation in mufulira district in particular and zambia as a whole, companies are urged to make social responsibility an integral part of the wealth creation process. i am confident that the zambian business community shall appreciate the benefits that accrue to both the company and its stakeholders in this vein, and hope i shall one day have the honour of being present at the first event to award deserving entities in this noble sphere. i thank you all.