Zambia: Zambia records $1.3bn investment pledges
Zambia Development Agency Acting Director Muhabi Lungu (left) is flanked by Communications Manager Margaret Chimanse at a press briefing in Lusaka.
THE Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) says the country recorded about US$1.3 billion in investment pledges for the first quarter of 2010.
ZDA communications and public relations manager Margaret Chimanse said in an interview in Kitwe yesterday that the investment pledges were mostly in the tourism sector.
The investment was mostly targeting the tourism sector and specifically infrastructure and services.
Ms Chimanse said the pledges were in view of the forthcoming FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the tourism opportunities that it promised the region.
She was speaking from the ZDA stand at the on-going Copperbelt Mining, Agricultural and Commercial Show (CMACS).
Ms Chimanse emphasised that the pledges did not mean the actual investment but simply plans for investment.
She noted that 50 per cent of last year’s investment pledges were not implemented in various sectors.
“Last year we undertook a check on the pledges and established that not all the pledges had been implemented,” she said.
And the agency said K24 billion had been reserved under the Business Development Services (BDS) programme to assist small-scale organisations develop their businesses.
She said the money was made available by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Finnish and Netherlands governments and Government contributed K3 billion.
Ms Chimanse said the funds were being used to train small-scale entrepreneurs in business and the beneficiaries received services and not the actual money.
She said the agency was also encouraging rural entrepreneurship because the businesses were not required to pay income tax for five years from establishment.
[Times of Zambia]
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only 50% of pledges were realised last year. I wonder what the main barrier is. Is it the policies or the cost of doing business in Zambia?
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Ms Chimanse whats the good of a pledge if it dont get fufilled. For your information the world cup has not delivered as much for the host nation so you can imagine what that means for Zambia.
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Unipists have taken over
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This is good but I think the govt should put more emphasis on local investors as this will be long term than these infestors who only stay when it suits them
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The world cup is in 13 days and now is when your thinking of developing plans for tourism.these must be jokes
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