Sunday, December 22, 2024
Subscribe
Economy

RB launches Lusaka Sub Economic Zone

By editor
66
4,073 views

Share

President Rupiah Banda says his government will accelerate the diversification of the Zambian economy as a way of mitigating the effects of the global economic and financial crunch.

And President Banda has called for increased economic corporation between Zambia and China.

Speaking at the launch of the construction works of the Lusaka Sub-Zone of the Chambeshi Multi-facility Economic Zone, Mr. Banda said his government has already started working-out modalities aimed at addressing the various challenges associated with the global and economic meltdown.

President Banda said one such measure of mitigating the financial crunch was to seek for more donor assistance and to woo more foreign investors into the country.

He further said that his administration was also putting in place extra remedial measures aimed at promoting development in all the key sectors of the economy.

Mr. Banda said his government will continue diversifying the economy in order to sustain the country’s economic growth and minimize the negative impact arising from the global economic down turn.

He however said the launch of the Lusaka Sub-Zone of the Chambeshi Multi-facility Economic Zone had come at a right time when the global financial meltdown had started exerting massive pressure on most economies in both developed and developing worlds.

Mr. Banda said the multi-facility economic zone will show that Zambia was still an attractive economic investment destination and give confidence to existing investors to redouble their efforts of increasing investment portfolios in the country.

He said the construction of the Lusaka Sub economic Zone was progressing well and that a total investment infrastructure development had reached US$100 million.

He said by the year 2011 , the economic facility will accommodate fifty to sixty zone enterprises with an out put volume exceeding US$1.5 billion of which more than US$600 million would be exported while employing more than 6, 000 local people.

Mr. Banda is happy that Zambia is the first African country to benefit from the China-Africa economic commitment through the establishment of the Chambeshi multi-facility economic zone in which investment will amount to US$900 million.

President Banda further called on the Chinese and other foreign investors to support local suppliers of materials in order to support the growth of the local industry.

Speaking at the same function, Chinese Minister in Charge of Commerce Chen Deming reaffirmed his government is committed to supporting Zambia’s economic development agenda.

He said his government and the people of China will work hand in hand with the Zambian government in enhancing economic trade between the two sister countries.

Mr. Deming further said his government would continue supporting Zambia in its various development programmes and ensure that the Lusaka Sub-economic zone remained the best facility in Africa after its completion.

And China Nonferrous Metals Mining Company (CNMC) President Luo Tao said the construction of the Lusaka Sub economic zone was a symbolic project for continued economic ties between Zambia and China.

Mr. Tao further assured the Zambian government and the people that despite the economic problems that his company was going through, the company remained determined to ensuring that no worker was laid-off in view of the economic crunch.

ZANIS/TK/PC/ENDS

editor
editorhttp://www.lusakatimes.com

66 COMMENTS

  3. LT you can delete the first Entry. Many thanks!!!

    I just can not hear this word anymore!!

    DIVERSIFY!!! EVEN KAUNDA USED IT SO MANY TIMES IN HIS 27 Years of ….!! ( Will not say it)

  4. I do not think Rb even understands what he is talking about. Zambian politicians are good at throwing economic jargon at the unsuspecting public . I just read through this and at first instance this sounds like typical dilatory political tactics.

  5. I also think he has clue to what his talking about. Just yapping I think. More donors! when the same donors are in a crisis.

  6. Good news!
    This economic zone is good news to Zambia.Zambia will become the second largest maufacture country in Sothern Africa which is profiting from the steady politic tactics,peaceful and friendly enviroment. Very soon, you will see Made in Zambia products is full in surrounding countries.
    Also Zambia can open it’s vigin land to foreiners,it will reduce the food price in Zambia. also gain profits from exporting maize to neibour country.

  10. “President Banda said one such measure of mitigating the financial crunch was to seek for more donor assistance and to woo more foreign investors into the country.”
    While this is good, when are we going to stop asking for help from donors. This behaviour of seeking more assistance from donors is the same as that of street kids in our towns/cities asking for help from other well to do Zambians.
    Mr President RB Banda, please it is a shame to reduce Zambia to being a street-kid kind of beggar on the international scene where other non-Zambian world Citizens are laughing at us for failing to use our hands and resources to do the needful in our lives. Could you therefore change your strategy.

  11. You are guys who are broad you that comment things you do not understand. Chinese are bring development to Zambia. Visit Chambeshi area you will appreciate what they will do also in Lusaka. This zone will create companies which will process some materials from Zambia and export. These are programs which were left by the Late. LPM We that thank the late for these initiatives which will help Zambia. I’m in opostion but on this one we give credit where its due.

  12. On “He said by the year 2011 , the economic facility will accommodate fifty to sixty zone enterprises with an out put volume exceeding US$1.5 billion of which more than US$600 million would be exported while employing more than 6, 000 local people”, Mr President RB Banda please be careful with such statements as we shall be monitoring your promises.

    Please be extra careful, sir, as you are putting yourself and the MMD in a tricky position if you do not fulfill this promise by the time 2011 elections will be coming.

    There is always a good in doing than talking much.
    ====
    LT 2008 Award Winner. =; for Zambia in 2011.

  13. “President Banda said one such measure of mitigating the financial crunch was to seek for more donor assistance and to woo more foreign investors into the country.”

    RB please be realistic, what makes you think the donors will leave their own problems to attend to ours?
    France is involved very actively in negotiating for a ceasefire in Gaza, and now as a president of European Unity they have more important issue to deal with in Europe after Russia cut out all gas exports to Europe through Ukrainian pipelines.(Russia supplies 40% of natural gas of Europe!)
    Germany’s Deutsche Bank has just recorded a 50 billion Euro deficit and these are just a few examples…please wake up!

  15. THE NEXT THING YOU WILL HEAR IS THAT THERE IS A CHINESE CLAUSE IN THE CONSTITUTION TO COME!!

    THAT WILL MAKE A CHINESE RUN FOR PRESIDENT PA ZED!! NINSHI TWANYAo->o->o->

  16. #11 You remind me of a conversation I had with a friend in Zambia. H e was telling me at pa zed the situation has improved theres arcades ,rhapsody’s, manda hill and people are driving nice cars. This amused me because the definition of development seems to be seeing nice things around while the average common zambian starves. Development is not seeing how investors have profited and left nice buildings behind, development is the food on your table, your welfare and your families welfare, healthcare et al. It is not about the arcades or the manda hill it’s the people that live a stone’s throw away like in Kalingalinga, mutendere.

  18. cont..
    When the government starts to complain ati the kids in kalingalinga are mazdumbo maliketi from eating T-bone steak every day then we can agree ati theres development.

  19. #18 Shalapungu wansekeshya…ati Mazdumbo Maliketi:))

    Anyways, that’s the old “horizon effect”: the gov’t was programmed to move fast but it is running on a weak processor.

    Kaya…katwishi…I don’t know….Ich weiß es nicht….:-\”

  21. #4. Shalapungu Banton

    #5. Sarah Jones

    #7. Supergal

    Since you guys know more than RB, you might as well enlighten us why this is not a good move. Please use economic jargon where possible seeing you are more informed than RB.

    I await your responses (and what I know is since you also don’t know, you will probably attack me and accuse me of being MMD).

  28. Does anyone have the conditions for this development – who owns it, is it another giveaway of Zambian resources and rights, how strong is China’s influence going to be, will these companies pay taxes, what are labour conditions and will national labour and environmental laws be enforced (they weren’t under the Development Agreements for the mines), etc.

    Details are what are needed.

  29. ” President Rupiah Banda says his government will accelerate the diversification of the Zambian economy ”

    But then…

    ” He said by the year 2011 , the economic facility will accommodate fifty to sixty zone enterprises ”

    So ‘the Zambian economy’ will be diversified… with 50 to 60 businesses… 2 years from now?

    This is not economic diversification. This is just the same old ‘foreign investor’ garbage that has left 70% of people officially unemployed. Zambia has a labour force of 5,000,000 people, so these fifty companies are not even going to make a dent.

    And how much is being given up for this? How many billions will be wasted through uncollected taxes?

  30. # 28 ZAMBIA WAS ON EBAY AND THE CHINESE WON THE BIDING!!

    ZAMBIA IS BEING SOLD WHILE WE LOOK!!!

    ACTUALLY NO VISA AND NO TAX FOR A CHINESE NATIONAL IN ZAMBIA!!!

    I HOPE ZAMBIANS A EATING CHINESE FOOD FOR FREE!!

  31. What about our good Chinese friends building us a specialist hospital?

    I know that they have failed to run Sino-Zam hospital(formerly Nkana Hospital) but I also know that they have very good specialist hospitals in China.

    Come on friends, help us. :d/:d/:d/:d/:d/:d/:d/

  33. Show Zambians the money instead of your usual empty theoretical armchair critic that tables no alternative or rational propositions. People are sinking deep in poverty and to see opportunities in the economic cycles.They will not eat empty Diaspora flagged armchair criticism and sense of negativism that has failed you.What have you done for the people at home and the country to dispell the guiltiness that you are living failures in your personal lives.Show people the Dollar to gain credibility.

  34. Sage, in the thread w w w. lusakatimes. com/ ? p = 7346, you dropped me some questions and by the time I was free the topic had moved out of the stories in view and so I decided to post my reply there and also put it up here for you to have quick access to it. So follow through my postings below and then send me email on [email protected] if you will feel that you need further clarifications on my comments.
    Sorry, I have been busy with working on a LEGO ROVER – Advanced Robot – as we will have a competition tomorrow involving 6 teams of which I am in team 6 and had to participate fully to make sure our case receives the prize, by god’s grace, if it will perform to the expectations.

  35. #58. Sage, you indicated 327. Maestro Hhehhehhehhe & JJ, You are being economical with the truth.Rewind your brains and tell us what HH meant at Mongu’s bluegum Heroes square in 2006 when he publicly appealed to Lozis not to vote for Nawakwi or Sata northerners.”
    Yes, I remember president Hakainde Hichilema, HH, was reported as having said that Lozi’s should vote for a Tonga as they are tribal cousins instead of a northerner Sata whom Sakwiba Sikota had gone to campaign for as a PF/ULP coalition move. I don’t remember HH mentioning anything about about Nawakwi not being voted for by Lozis because she was a northerner. In my view, Nawakwi did not matter then and in fact she was part of UDA…

  36. 283 continued.
    which sponsored HH as a presidential candidate for it to rule Zambia. In light of this, your statement including Nawakwi in “tell us what HH meant at Mongu’s bluegum Heroes square in 2006 when he publicly appealed to Lozis not to vote for Nawakwi or Sata northerners” is clearly wrong and meant to cheat those who missed what exactly transpired then. I would be glad if you thus give us a full quote of president HH’s exact words and their source on here LT to back up your assertions.

  37. 284 continued.
    Also, on “27. Maestro Hhehhehhehhe & JJ, You are being economical with the truth…The same 2006 Sata said North Westerners are buttock Nyamazais whom he would expell to Angola.In Luapula he said levy from from a minority tribe was persecuting plunders because they are bembas and they should deny him their vote.In Eastern he asked their votes as a cousin,” I will not waste much ime as you have put it all as you know for I have always claimed that Sata is the biggest tribalist and racist against the Chinese people I have ever known of all Zambians in my life’s history. Mr MC Sata’s lack of enough education makes him say things disspeakable and also terrible for the Nation.

  38. 285 continued.
    On “27. Maestro Hhehhehhehhe & JJ, … And in 2008 Rupiah appealed to Easterners to vote him in as their own son.What is that to you?”
    The Incumbent President, then Vice President, Mr RB Banda made a clear tribal statement by appealing to easterners to give him a 100% vote as he is their son or one of them. In fact, I would ask him to apologise for those words to the whole Nation. Mr President RB Banda clearly behaved in a tribal manner just like “The same 2006 Sata…In Luapula he said levy from from a minority tribe was persecuting plunders because they are bembas and they should deny him their vote.”

  39. 286 cont’d.
    In all, only MC Sata and President RB Banda conducted themselves in a 100% tribal manner as their statements had to do with a motive getting 100% support from their tribes mates.
    On president HH, I would have written a similar thing to the above two if he issued a statement pleading for 100% support in the Southern Province for some reason about being Tonga which he has never done. On all HH’s campaign messages, he has been quoted as asking people not to vote for any candidate – including himself – on tribal grounds but on ability to perform and policies promised by his political party including life telling testimony like family values.
    ===
    LT 2008 Award Winner.=; for Zambia

  42. From: Unlocking the Potential of Zambian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, by Chibwe CHISALA

    ” Companies that will operate in the MFEZs will qualify for special incentives such as exemption from paying corporate tax for a period up to 5 years and also exemption from paying import duties for intermediate goods and raw materials among others as stipulated in the ZDA Act of 2006 and the MFEZ regulations (2006). “

  44. Can we at least get some pictures of these multi million dollar zones so we can at least admire and maybe bid for ka ntemba for processing pasta with capenter in tomato sauce. On a more serious note, Zambians should seriously take advantage and invest. At the end of the day, Zambia will only be developed with full commitment from the owners(Zambians):)>-

  45. #44 Iwe Pics only come after the whole project has failed!! not before 😮

    Now is Money Spending Time

    1. Fly to SA

    2. Invite Bapongoshi for Holidays to China

    3.Buy a new Pajero

    4. Johnny Walker

    5…

    Then the money left will be invested to build up cheap infrastructure which disappears with the rain season.
    THEN YOU WILL SEE PICS OF WHAT WAS MEANT TO BE!! JUST WAIT ~o)

  47. this isnt a new idea – ba late LPM came up with this. RB is only implementing but then, his measures to mitigate current probs are not clear/ he sounds blank and then come on, someone should have given him a good paper to base his remarks. the man just needs help afterall even late LPM had lots of hiccups although quick in understanding the environment. rb is a bit like tired table-cloth, you cannot wait to get a new one but you have to do with it for now.

  48. In the two years since the shock announcement that initial analysis had suggested the presence of hydrocarbons, extensive surveys using German technology had shown ”huge potential for oil and gas in the country”, Mr Mwansa said. ”But we don’t know the quantity and the quality.” The government hoped to finalise the terms of the exploration tenders within half a year, he added, and had set up the Zambia Petroleum Company as ”a vehicle for state participation” in the industry.

  49. There is a wise saying.. “its better to not speak and be suspected to be of no intelligence than to speak to confirm it!”

  50. Ba Jamaco and Ba Chale sounds like you getting too much into German culture, mwati tamwakabushe Holocaust against ama Chinese?

  51. Economic zone ,is it going to keep the mines working or airline operational? Keep asking RB from experts not stugies,u will recall real men like MAGANDE. >:)>:)

  53. PRESS CLIP

    Asked how this economic zone would operate and how Zambians would benefit from it, President Banda replied, “I don’t Know yet!!”.

  54. Ha there is a steel plant in Kafue, it just off-loaded 500 of our nationals (Zambians) and brought in Indians migrant laboureres to replace the Natives. They live in a containers camp sorrounded by barbed wire. The camp looks like “Guantanamo bay”. What they have borught, a sorry sight type of “experts” they have brought to replace our locals. I cry for Zambia. I ask the post newspaper to cover this story.The chaps borught can’t pass even humanity test (no appologies, our land is busy being concessioned.

  58. Zambia Still Blind…!!! When we are abroad, we know that 100 Million dollars is not an investiment worthy mitigating the global economic problems. At the same time, China is filthy rich, and an investiment worthy $100M, is just pea-nuts, and a stub in the back of that country. One smells a fish, what China is up to. Do you guys have international exposure to know what is going on with this global economic melt-down? Who is advissing Mr. president?
    It calls for short and long term solutions. So far, I see no short term solutions for Zambia. If the Zambia sub-economic zone barely has a $100M investiment, far from it, it will never put money into pockets of ordinary Zambians, 10yrs later.

  59. #54 forget about the POST you used to know!!! Even the post has been corrupted and polluted by this government!
    Do you not know by now that Dickson Jere, the president’s senior media analyst (whatever they call his position), is a former post journalist?

  60. 16. Shalapungu Banton,

    ” This amused me because the definition of development seems to be seeing nice things around while the average common zambian starves. ”

    And that seems to be the entire problem. These politicians all suffer from it – they don’t distinguish between bling and power – and that is the attitude that carries over into ‘attracting investors’ too.

    Look at Rupiah Banda today, opening a Pepsi factory. Do we really need more garbage for our people to eat or drink? So they too can die of strokes and diabetes, like Levy Mwanawasa?

    Create living wages for the people, and good organic food for people to eat – that is the role of government. Not Pepsi factories.

  61. The problem is people being poor and then coming into wealth when they are elected to public office. Mwanawasa, Tsangirai, watch how their suits get shinier and shinier. I call it “The Elvis Syndrome”. Elvis grew up in the Depression, and when he made it big, all of a sudden he started wearing big suits, big hair, and started handing out pink cadillacs to his friends and people he met in the street. In the end, he nearly ate himself to death on the food he could not afford as a child – hamburgers (with meat instead of cheeseburgers), and fried peanutbutter and banana sandwitches. That is how he became ‘Fat Elvis’.

  62. 58. DK,

    The problem is that these MMD politicians want foreign investors to do everything for them. They are unwilling to put in place the policies that made the Malaysian MFEZ concept work in the first place – universal education and healthcare, and the insistance that these foreign companies use Zambian suppliers only. Instead, now they don’t even ‘bring jobs’ (Mwanawasa’s words), but ship in Indian workers, just like they shipped Chinese workers into Jamaica (see the documentary “Life And Debt” by Stephanie Black, available on video.google /com).

  63. These MFEZ zones are not going to work, and we don’t need to way a single day to be proven right. The government has not ensured a maximum positive impact on the Zambian economy (local suppliers only, technical education, small business support, hiring locals only), and that is why they have in fact already failed.

    Let’s turn away from them, and start developing agriculture now.

  66. The nice thing about this if they become stupid we kick em out!so let them know how we play the game our rules ok!so now #6 you suggest we open lands to foreigners why? do Zambians have hands?can’t they farm?so Zambians should get all arable land and anyone who wants to rent they should rent land from Zambians and pay rent if you can’t till the land at least it will belong to a zambian…

Comments are closed.

Read more

Local News

Company

Trending

Categories

© Lusaka Times

Discover more from Lusaka Times-Zambia's Leading Online News Site - LusakaTimes.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading