President Hakainde Hichilema is set to travel to Angola on December 4, 2024, for an official visit at the invitation of Angola’s President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço. The announcement was made in a statement by Zambia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mulambo Haimbe.
During the visit, President Hichilema will attend the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment Lobito Corridor Summit, a high-profile event organized by the Angolan government. The summit coincides with the state visit of U.S. President Joseph Biden to Angola.
Focus on the Lobito Corridor Project
Minister Haimbe highlighted that the summit will center on the development of the Lobito Corridor, a pivotal infrastructure initiative aimed at boosting trade and connectivity across southern Africa. The project has been heralded as a game-changer for the region’s economic integration.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the United Republic of Tanzania will also be represented at the summit, underscoring the regional significance of the corridor. The Lobito Corridor Consortium will use the event to celebrate progress and strengthen partnerships driving the trans-African infrastructure project.
Zambia’s Commitment to Regional Development
President Hichilema is expected to engage in high-level discussions alongside other regional leaders and international stakeholders. These talks will focus on enhancing regional cooperation and advancing the Lobito Corridor’s objectives.
“President Hichilema has emphasized the importance of the Lobito Corridor in promoting trade, regional integration, and economic growth,” Minister Haimbe said. “The President’s participation in the high-level summit underscores Zambia’s commitment to advancing this strategic initiative.”
The visit highlights Zambia’s dedication to fostering regional connectivity and economic development, reaffirming its role as a key player in southern Africa’s growth trajectory.
‘High-level, state of the art summit”. That was PF language Hamasaka has adopted.
..Just say HH will go be part of welcoming Joe Biden in Angola. Just as simple as that.
Indeed, it is superfluous terminology. Let us also be clear: It’s a railway line heralding a new scramble for resources for Africa, and let’s pray it is not as bloody and fraught as past great power competitions. President Hichlema is president only in name; he is the ‘Manchurian candidate’ planted to facilitate the extraction of minerals for US Corporate interests.
Hichilema’s role seems to be more about appearances—he is neither the one making the decisions nor the one implementing their project. Zambia should focus on tying our support to mandatory value addition for raw materials and negotiating a timeline for achieving a certain level of processed goods for export. Unfortunately, the personal vested interests of the ruling elite in Zambia have overshadowed this long-term strategic thinking.
Always negative as usual. So if Zambia wants to import and export through the Corridor, Is there anything wrong? That project was long planned on even during the UNIP era.
Katana
That is it……..always negative , but they offer no suggestions…….
They think because we are inmidest of drought induced loadshedding………
Everything else must stop……….
Statecraft don’t work like that………
Work continues, day and night, meetings after meetings,………
We are here
Forwadee 2031
But ba LT kodi kulibe ma stories other than President Hichilema has jumped into his plane?
Boring
High Level Summit in Angola ??
That was enough for me and read no further
He should have remained home to address the crippling blackouts. Without power, you have no economic development to talk about.
Why not call it mount everest meeting!!!!!!
Lets hope Biden remembers Zambia and doesn’t refer to us as Zimbabwe
He is probably unhappy that Angola was chosen and not Zambia. We wouldn’t have heard the end of this I am sure.
Let him stay away for several weeks, our chiefs also need to focus on their subjects for once.
And yes, we are dissatisfied when he is in the country too long crisscrossing chiefdoms. We are also dissatisfied when he is always abroad.
We are simply dissatisfied.
Kikikikiki summit now have levels….Africa we joke too much…” HIGH LEVEL SUMMIT “….malabishi….going to make personal deals using tax payers money
High level summits not bearing fruits for Zambians.can these meetings not yield any
Thing towards the black out experienced for
Over a year now?The least New dawn could
Achieve is giving eight hours of power.
Why is DRC and Zambia so eager to have our critical minerals exported in raw form only for us to import finished products while poverty in both countries rans rampant? What happens in the next 10-20-50 years when we also need these critical minerals for our own economic activities?
The rail line existed before, but was destroyed during the war between Unita and MPLA…it does add anything to our country. All USA wants is to have a short cut from the Congo mines to the Atlantic ocean…. Biden wouldn’t waste his time coming here unless the USA benefits 100%.
@ Likoma Kajukite
Its called the African smart way of thinking….can you imagine that 90% of all Africa’s imports are made of raw materials from Africa stolen by our leaders and giving it away for pennies to the West and East….its its African leaders make personal deals to via useless summits like this
I asked for project milestones on the expected delivery time line for the common man to start getting the benefits of this lobito project and my original polite and measured post was expunged out and not even moderated by either LT or the shushushus planted in these places. Who ever did that is a full.
Biden will highlight his signature initiative in the region – a railway line that will stretch for 1,344km (835 miles), connecting the cobalt, lithium and copper mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the copper-belt region of Zambia, to the Angolan port city of Lobito on the Atlantic Ocean.
Apart from oil, Angola is also rich in minerals, including cobalt and lithium, which are essential for making batteries for electric vehicles.
Once completed, the Lobito Corridor will help transport these important minerals from the resource-rich heart of Africa across to Europe and the US.
That may be the case but with hostile element in those areas trouble can be expected
future generations may see it come about. not the present
so its all about wanting to get all the mineral resources! Wake up guys!
Even if we woke up Sir, we are powerless, we are entrapped and done and dusted.
Biden has disappointed me. I had very high regard for this man. Now it seems he is behaving like one Edgar trying to complete projects before leaving office. He had all the time to deal with this issue. That said, I don’t blame him for pardoning his son. I would do the same. Blood is thicker than water.
You have 90% of imports and exports in southern African countries using road mode transports……..
Costs are critically high for business because of restricted modes of transportation……..
Now people want to build alternative modes of transportation , you complain……???
That rail , as equally as being used to export raw materials will also be capable of exporting finished goods, like renewable batteries………?
What is wrong with importing fuel products using that rail line…….????
Then you say we can’t produce renewable batteries ???
Get that of your slave monkey ass defeatist mentality……..
There’s nothing wrong with having a 2nd rail road export route…….
We are moving forward
Forwadee 2031
@Spaka, Katana etal, Doomsayers are always bitter with negativity perception of the current government. They see nothing wrong with why Zambians voted out a regime that was run on mafia style of governing – cadres as commandos, drug barons using diplomatic status, corruption – “Ubomba mwibala”, cronism sharing ill gotten money who most of them face jail. Let them state who is the altenative to HH and UPND as at now……, do i hear Kalaba, Fred Membe, or Miles Sampa and certainly not ECL, all fall short of the high presidential bar raised so far. Bitterness will choke them by 2031.
That fact that all fall short of presidential material
Does not make HH the right one He may well be the most honourable and honest to date
but still falls short of presidential qualities
Just my opinion
This is about governing the country…….
Live’s and future lives depend on who you chose……..
You can’t just say not him , but I don’t know who, maybe……
depending on tribe or who shouts themost…….???
This is where Africa fails , even known theives are voted into office……..
Just look at the people of petauke, voting in as their lawmaker a dangerous psycho like JJ banda……….imagine he finds himself near the corridors of power and by accident becomes president……..???
Forwadee 2031