Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Government appreciates Chinese investments – RB

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Chinese Ambassador to Zambia Li Qiangmin shows a plaque to President Banda after commissioning the CCS plant.
Chinese Ambassador to Zambia Li Qiangmin shows a plaque to President Banda after commissioning the CCS plant.

President Rupiah Banda says Government is appreciative of the unique economic support the nation continues to receive from China.

President Banda says during the global financial crunch, the Chinese Government did not down-size or close its companies in the country but instead increased its investment.

The President said the common history between Zambia and China has many remarkable landmarks in which Zambia has ended up with major infrastructure such as the Tanzania-Zambia Mafuta Oil Pipeline among others.

Mr. Banda said this in Chambishi today when he officially launched the Chambishi Copper Smelter on the Copperbelt Province.

He said the Copper Smelter has been setup within the Chambishi Multi-Facility Zone, whose concept is to attract manufacturing companies, in both domestic and export based categories.

He said the smelter is a major step towards the sort of economic progress that Government anticipates within the zone.

“I am glad to note that the company has already made fruitful arrangements to process copper concentrates from the recently opened Lumwana Copper Mine in North-Western Province. The Smelter is also receiving concentrates from Chambishi NFCA, Chibuluma and Kansanshi Mines. This is healthy development in the nation”, he said.

The President cited another investment by Chambishi Copper Smelter as the construction of an Electricity Power Substation that was constructed to supply power to the company at a cost of approximately US $2.8 million in which China Non Ferrous Metal Mining Group Limited Holds 60 percent shares while ZESCO Limited has 40 percent shares.

Mr. Banda called on Mining Companies operating on the Copperbelt and North-Western Province to utilize the smelter whose construction has adhered to international standards.

President Banda commissioning the electricity substation in Chambishi constructed at a cost of $28 m to power the economic zone.
President Banda commissioning the electricity substation in Chambishi constructed at a cost of $28 m to power the economic zone.

He said Chambishi Copper Smelter was strategically located in the heart of the Copperbelt and was in close proximity to major concentrators at the large scale mines in Zambia.

President Banda was pleased to note that more than 600 jobs have been created and that the local people in the area could now be able to access meaningful employment.

He said Government was evidently succeeding in attracting foreign direct investment resulting in the creation of jobs for the people in the country.

Mr. Banda further expressed delight that Zambians and Chinese workers had combined and integrated as one people.

He said that was proof of the friendliness and good understanding adding that that was the best way in which foreign direct investment should take root and bear fruit in the country.

The President noted that foreign investors are an important part of the struggle to improve the quality of life for the Zambian people.

He appealed to members of Civil Society Organizations to interpret Government actions positively as the country makes an effort to bring in foreign investment.

“ Where there are ideas on how to further improve or enhance Zambia’s relationship with Foreign investors and make them more profitable to the Zambian populace, those ideas are always welcome”, he said.

And Mr. Banda says Government pursues optimum benefits for workers injured, disabled or disposed at places of work, saying certain jobs were by nature hazardous and exposed workers to long-term health risks or sudden loss of limb or life through accidents.

He cautioned authorities at the Copper Smelter to ensure that the health and safety of the employees is central.

Mr. Banda said employees are the ones that generate revenues for the company and are also the ones on whom the progress and well-being of families depend.

The President further urged the mining sector to work within the confines of the Zambian law and cooperate with the regulatory bodies such as the Zambia Safety Department and the Environmental Council of Zambia to ensure compliance with various provisions of the law.

ZANIS

45 COMMENTS

  1. The Chinese investors are simply putting their mouth where the money is, that’s the way it is in the cooperate world. We should be concerned about the future of our resources instead of thanking them.

  2. KCM retrenched 700 miners a couple of months ago, this new smelter “MIGHT” employee 600, either way do the math..and i ask you are we moving forward?

  3. Amachocholi balesenda copper imwe ati iyo ebalibwino aba. Let them start manufacturing stuff right there in Zed baba.

  4. just imagine 45years after indipendence we continue to only say thankyou oh! hopless people ; you cannot be a country only specialised in begging what a shame. how about our own industries our own inversters it is painful to be hearing such at this age zambians must realise that they are people just as the chinese are .

  5. HE SHUD HAVE VISITED ALSO THE AREA WHERE THEY HAVE BARRIED OUR 52 BROTHERS WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE EXPLOSIVE ACCIDENT ONE OF THE MOST TERRIBLE ACCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY OF MINING IN ZAMBIA AND THE CHINESE HEALTH AND SAFETY ARE POOR AND THEY PAY THE MINE WORKERS POOR SALARIES. RUPIYA WOULD HAVE EMPASIZED ON HEALTH AND SAFETY INSTEAD OF JUST TAKING A SMALL SWIPE AT THE ISSUE. THESE CHINESE COMPANIES ARE REALLY ROOTING AFRICA. ITS A NEW CROP OF COLONIALISTS DISGUISED IN THE NAME OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.

  6. China doesn’t care about Zambia its all about money to them. China’s money lending practices are also very flexible thats why you see The Zambian Govt is so excited and have started trash talking the British. Right now those who are not aware of whats going on might think this is development, but one thing is for sure most of these products flooding the Zambian Market are low quality and can sometimes be even hazardous to people’s health. Look at what happened in New Orleans Louisana. The building materials that China supplied FEMA are causing all kinds of health conditions to the people living in those newly built houses. If something like this had to happen to Zambia, who are we going to run to?

  7. All african governments will appreciate chinese investment because chinese aid or investments does not come with any conditionalities in terms of good governance,accountability or indeed human rights.China’s willingness to finance resource and infrastructure projects without the nagging conditions demanded by the West is well known – and often derided as a willingness to “deal with dictators”. Look at how they treat workers,no laid down safety conditions,sub standard equipment and conditions,xploitative working conditions…africa is a dumping ground for cheap chinese products and our deluded leaders think its investment

  8. Please do not blame Chinese people if our leaders can not negotiate deals that maximize the benefits for Zambians. as far as I know Chinese people do not have hidden agendas. They are straight forward people unlike the western guys. China’s agenda is simple and straight forward. They need materials for their growing economy. Secondly they need friends since one day China will inevitably challenge the US as a world power as they compete for resources (especially petroleum) and votes for all countries will count in the UN. The best thing we can do is learn from them instead of whining. Technology transfer from China must be put on top of the agenda. We do not have a lot of time as these resources will finish one day.

  9. ENOUGH OF RB AND THE CHINEESE, GET THE LATEST INFO. OUR VERY OWN YOUNG MAN HASTINGS BWALYA WON BY WAY OF TKO IN NEVADA IN THE FIRST ROUND. THE FIGHT ONLY LASTED 30 SECONDS WITH FOUR POWERFUL HEADACHING PUNCHES FROM THE YOUNG MAN. HIS OPPONENT FAILED TO BEAT THE COUNT AND COULDN’T MAKE IT OUT OF THE RING UNAIDED. BE ON THE LOOK OUT HASTINGS WILL BRING A WORLD TITLE TO ZAMBIA SOON. THATBWAS HIS DEBUT FIGHT, HE IS BACK IN THE RING ON NOVEMBER 17TH. EARS TO THE GROUND.

  10. We should start processing the copper in Zambia and exporting it as a finished product thats when we can sit our behinds down and breathe, right now we selling the copper at a cheap price and receiving the copper back (in form of a finished product) at a high price, so either way the money is going to the foreigners.
    Anyways atleast we didn’t hear anything about politics today when it comes to Rupiah, i have had enough of politics and election and party news.

  11. #11 what evidence do you have for you to say chinese investors have no hidden agendas,these people exploit workers,they use cheap labour with no any safety measures in place, like i said earlier,they are not concerend with any good governance issues or human rights,there ineterest is to maximise production and profits at minimal costs,its not about challenging the US,its about seeing an opportunity on cheap resources in africa and taking advantage of the fact that african leaders are against conditions that come with their aid as well as investments.have you ever heard that china has frozen aid to an african country due to bad governance,non,zilch,zero,a very good example is zimbabwe.nuff said

  12. There is something that irks me and it is the anti-govt faction who seat in their London townhouses coming to voice their anti-Chinese racist views on this blog. It is really saddening that Zambians who enjoy comfy lives in the diaspora would rather see no investment flow in the country because it is “Chinese” investment rather than see that the investors are set to employ close to 600+ employees.

    This will generally mean that 600+ people will have a source of income to feed their families and support other businesses.

    Instead of criticizing the Chinese for coming with a strictly business model of investment, it would be to your benefit to create a situation where you benefit. From this investment…

  13. From this investment, I can see a small scale entrepreneur opening a small restaurant next to the industrial area where the industry is located. The 600+ workers will have to eat during their lunch breaks and they can exploit the small restaurant business that the small entrepreneur would start thereby benefiting the small restaurant owner. That is bust just an example of which one can create a situation where they benefit from foreign direct investment.

    Let us not be negative with the positives of the nation. Perhaps you must start thinking self-empowerment instead of failed ideologies like Humanism.

  14. The chinese are good people to work with, and learn from.GRZ just needs to put in insentives that will guarantee safety and good labour laws, we just have to learn from them.

  15. Why are we so mch into Chinese arent there any other countries who can bring good investment into Zambia. Its high time the Zambian gvt started having good international relationship with giant countries like USA, Britain and the others. We need bold and quality leadership who can have one to one talks with leaders like Barak Obama not Nyama Soya and Mulongoti what can they discuss with the US President. The gvt is busy demonising the donors and internatioanl communities do they know what they are leading this country into – we are yet to see serious problems coming just like what Zimbabwe went thru. Fuel crisis and more to come.

  16. Chinese investment in Zambia is that of prostitutes,this country is ****ed up they are payiny peanuts to poor zambians while for them they get between $5000 to $8000 US just like pa New Smelter,Indian Style.No wonder we zambians we are so peacefull and stupid.

  17. Iwe Banda instead of praising and pleasing the CHINESE why dont you come up with a plan to empower start our own MINES. The copper is here and there is a lot of money here otherwise these CHINESE would not be here. Yes they doing a good job but we dont want to be given fish- we want to do the fishing ourselves. Only when we do this arewe going to call ourselves independent.

  18. Only problem with Zambians is that we are easily fooled and take any foreigner to be our God. Chinese, Indians? As Investors? Waste of time. Not being racist but they have no social responsibility; they will milk Zambians to death.

    Zambians let’s wake up how long will we sleep????? What irritates is how sleepy and dead our government is. Like our leaders never travel? Dead Government, no Innovation and full of greed. All they know is attacking each other. Sata Vs RB whom we call leaders?? Shameful and really Sad.

  19. There is no need to thank the Chinese investors. They are simply investing coz the expected returns on their investments are high. Its un acceptable that the lowest paid worker takes home K350,000 and higest K700,000 per month worse even medical facilities are confined to the worker minus his spouce and children. There is need for the labour department to guide this so called investors to come up with a living wage for workers. If not careful, we will end up with a pool of labourers where upon retirement they shall put pressure on the treasury as they will have worked for mahala. The Chinese are good at exploiting workers coz its their working culture to achieve results without considering the workers’ circumstance. No need for slavery wages, GRZ wake up.

  20. At the end of life span of the mines the so called investors are going to dismantle the plants and take their machines away or simply scrap them and leve behind huge holes in the ground which shall be of no use to future generations.GRZ has allowed the Chinese to explore and mine in North-Western Province, that will be the end of the future of this coutry. North-Western was like a virgin child of mother Zambia, with these chaps from China this country is headed for long term under development. Its only Zambia which allows investors to reap all the profits from its natural resources free without any tangiable benefits to its majaority citizens. If these invstors were dealing with serious leaders they would comply with our conditions of operating in ZAmbia. But coz of corruption no change

  21. Fellow Zedians whose responsibility is it to negotiate for better salaries and conditions of service? Workers have their representatives whom they should put to task and not GRZ. Let us be real. These guys have invested and to me they are real investors because we can see were there was abush there is some good structure unlike the so called Western investors. What new structure did Anglo build? What we need is to take all this investment to our advantage and not grumble over chinese people. Ask Hon. Kambwili who was against the chinese in Luanshya what happened to his night club when the mine was on care and maintainance and what is happening now. USa is doing business with china and borrowing from china and here we are saying no to such what a pity!

  22. #22(INSAKA).The Chinese are the only ones with money and willing to invest or rather take advantage of the downturn.The US has its own problems at home.EU has her problemsa as well.look at how Germany,Spain and other EU countries have been bickering over the sale of OPEL to magma accusing Germany of going to benefit more in terms of saving jobs than others.Chinese economy never went in recesion but just slowed to a record 4%.Chinse are not bad if closely monitored.We need more labour inspectors at MLSS.

  23. # 21 that is true. some of these people are good. the only issue here which we need in zed is LAW. let there be law enforced and well followed by everyone and not over-ridden by any one not even president or Government. Bane the developed nations like Australia is all about law. the law guides them and there is no slavery in work places. they have put all conditions in place and if an employer does not follow those conditions he is sued and fined even risk being in jail.
    so My Brothers and Sisters Zambia can only move right with the law. our law in Zambia is all about Rupiah (President), because of too much power the constitution,our constitution has put in his mind,he is able to rule over it even when he swore to uphold and follow it.

  24. Most bloggers are against Chinese investment but non is providing an alternative. Chinese criticism is mainly based on what the west say about China. Remember Africa is like a beautiful lady sought after by two men. Each will say bad things about the other to win the lady. It up to us to assess the two types of investment i.e Chinese and Western. After all we no mater how bad the chinese are, we can always extract something beneficial from them if we apply our brains to the issue of development not our hearts.

  25. #12 Smoothcriminal, Since you are so obsessed with your negative attitude towards the Chinese and feel the West is so good to you, perhaps you could tell us whether it was the Chinese who dumped Toxic waste in Cote d’ Ivore. And after so many people fell ill and some died, please tell us whether the government in the west where the ship originated bothered to arrest the criminals who sent the toxic waste to Africa? It is not about East or west, it is about money and resources and the leverages your government possesses to impose conditions of investment in favour of your country. A senior ANC official once said, the only thing worse than being exploited is NOT BEING exploited. He was voicing his frustration with the world economic order.

  26. #12, Smoothcriminal, I might further remind you that the Americans support Saudi Arabia. Yet Saudi Arabia has never been a democracy. The Americans never impose conditions on Saudi Arabia. It is all about money and oil. So much for your obssession that the West love you. They don’t.

  27. The President is proud to say that Chambeshi copper smelter will employ 600 people. The much talked about 600 people have already been employed and they are getting as little as K540,000 per month inclusive of housing allowance and overtime.

    Now if you multiply K 540,000 by 600 employees by 12 months you will find that this company is spending K3,888,000,000 which is equivalent to $845,000 at the current exchange rate.

    The current PAYE threshold is K800,000 meaning all the 600 employees are not contributing to the national treasury.

    This company has capacity to produce 150,000 metric tons of copper blister which is worth $900,000,000 at the current copper price of $6,000 per metric ton. So the wage bill is 0.093% of gross income and the government is boosting that we have…

  28. No. 30, 31 & 32 you are all very right. Instead of just insulting and being critics, We must accept Chinese Investment. Even the west has accepted that the Chinese are the only ones with money to invest and a very big market to sell the products. Look at Ndola there were alot of Western Investment but they all left for Zimbabwe and South Africa. The West are not the best Investors, Look at what Anglo American did to us over the mines, they just abandoned us and said there was no life in the mines. The Chinese have brought life back in the mines. Lets just form support industries to benefit from the mines.

  29. My brother Kiswapako there is no guarantee that the Chinese will stay forever. They can also abandon us.

    It is us the Zambians who will develop this country not foreigners.

    For example, my friend wants to set up a 700 tpd cement plant in North Western province. He has already done the feasibility studies and he approached ADB for funding. The total cost for the project is $3,000,000 and ADB told him that he can only get the money once the Zambia Government Guarantees the loan. Unfortunately, GRZ has refused to guarantee the loan. There are so many International Banks willing to lend money to Zambia companies at lower interest rates but GRZ is not been supportive.

  30. #33 NKOLE WAMAPEMBWE….dont get me wrong,im against any form of aid,be it from the west or east,i would rather they gave me the tools and showed me how to do it myself,but my argument is such;China’s approach to trade and investment is problematic. Chinese investors loan and trade unconditionally, refusing to interfere with the domestic policies of their African partners. This indifference is facilitating corruption, violence, and environmental irresponsibility throughout the continent.In Sudan, Chinese investment is fueling oil production and expediting genocide. Sudan is Africa’s third largest oil producer and the leading recipient of Chinese direct foreign investment. what is china doing to end that war,nothing,in zimbabwe,in the midst of mayhem they managed to give mugabe guns

  31. contd:do you think they are bringing their investment because they love africa,nope,do you think they give a rats ass about africa,no,reasons being that china is the largest producer of steel in the world at the moment because they are getting cheap raw materials in africa and sending it back to china,however,trade with the Chinese will stimulate African economies and development projects financed by China will benefit Africa’s infrastructure and provide employment opportunities to Africans. However, unlike Western lending institutions which require African borrowers to operate transparently and with regards for human rights, China distributes loans without similar conditions. African borrowers are inclined to prefer unconditional Chinese loans, but China’s systemisundercuttinggood…

  32. Anyway since the coming ot these chinese I havent seen any sensible investment apart from crowding Kamwala shopping centre with cheap stuff. They are very bad employers. Our government is partly to blame for poor labor laws.

  33. Chinese have no respect for human being even their own Chinese pipo are paid slavery salaries so what do you expect from pipo like them. If you talk of safety China is # 1 in breaking the rules. They have killed their own young and old Chinese due to lack of safety measure. If they can do that in their own country do you expect them to care about us pl………z.
    Its high time our govt came up with a good mission for our country. I mean they can concentrate on agriculture and see how far we can go. When it comes to investors, they should be strict and make sure that Zedians are well paid and no land should be sold permanently to foreigners.

  34. What is the long and short term plan to empower Zambians to actually own prominent companies ? Why doesn’t Zambia have 50% shares in these investments? When does the MMD 20 yrs rule ever plan to empower the local Zambians in their deals. 600 jobs…What are the wages? What kind of jobs? What is the tax system on this company? Will the tax be enough to improve Zambian owned companies like ZESCO?

  35. CHAMBISHI COPPER SMELTER

    The President is proud to say that Chambeshi copper smelter will employ 600 people. The much talked about 600 people have already been employed and they are getting as little as K540,000 per month inclusive of housing allowance and overtime.
    Now if you multiply K 540,000 by 600 employees by 12 months you will find that this company is spending K3, 888,000,000 which is equivalent to $845,000 at the current exchange rate.
    The current PAYE threshold is K800, 000 meaning all the 600 employees are not contributing to the national treasury.
    This company has capacity to produce 150,000 metric tons of copper blister which is worth $900,000,000 at the current copper price of $6,000 per metric ton. So the wage bill is 0.093% of gross income and the government is…

  36. Instead of Rupiah Banda appreciating the investers, he should be spending more time in Zambia and appriate the Zambians anger and frustrations towards his leadership and administartion.
    When does he actually find time to appreciate the investers’ hard work of improving The Republic of Zambia’s economy?
    But Mwandi aawe!!!!

  37. hey hey hey i work for chinese company and am black its very very PAIN ful to be an african and to be Black working for ANY chinese company they are not investers but vampures please they want labour for free no benefit no pension no work no money for chinese nothing for free.i hate them the are not paying just look at one chinese behavour and tell be if you can’t see any thing strange resist i have prove.

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