China has boosted its planned investment to US$900 million in Zambia`s mineral-rich Copper Belt over the next four years, the government said on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Commerce and Trade said China Nonferrous Metals Corporation (CNMC) president Luo Tao told Zambian authorities that Chinese firms would now add an extra US$100 million to the initial US$800 million investments planned for the new Chambishi economic zone.
The zone, pioneered by CNMC, is designed to draw investment from scores of Chinese companies in copper and cobalt mining, agriculture and manufacturing to create 60,000 jobs.
Deputy commerce and trade minister Dora Siliya was in China to finalise investment arrangements with firms planning to set up in Zambia starting from this year, the statement said.
A senior treasury official told Reuters that Chinese firms had shown interest in setting up manufacturing plants, including processing copper into finished products such as cables.
President Levy Mwanawasa said in February after talks with Chinese leader Hu Jintao that his government would create the economic zone in the Copper Belt town of Chambishi, 420 km north of the capital Lusaka, and exempt Chinese firms from import and value added taxes.
Analysts say the move fitted in China`s strategy to tap raw materials from African nations in exchange for grants and unconditional loans to the world`s poorest continent.
fili ukotuleya, exempting these kabwalalas(chinese) from paying taxes you will see how they are going to abuse the system.Its like our leaders never learn.Today there is a struggle with mineral loyalty and you still continue to lose money thru stupid decisions like this one.LPM must be earning kick backs from all these useless deals.Why cant similar incentives be given local manufacturers and entrepreneurs?Myopia will one day make our country become a remote controlled province of Shangai.This alliance with China needs serious public scrutiny,because we donot know where this link is taking us.The onus will be for those with long life span who will live to see the repurcussions of this engagement.Unfortunately BaJoze,LPM and gk wont be there to see the problems being created today for the future generation to suffer.
This is good news to learn that someone is investing such huge amounts of money in the economy when other parts of the world are struggling for investments. The only problem is it is not a 50-50 situation, other people and organisations are determining what we should and should not do.
I hope this investment and others will help resustain the economy on the copperbelt and that signatures are not been appended for a cut.
Kuku, the global economic terrain is getting tougher. Its important but often hard to negotiate decent deals when someone is offering to invest $800 million into our impoverished economy. Their ideas look impressive on paper but your fears are well founded.
It may appear like alot of money but i hope the Chinese are not going to rip the guts out of us and our environment in a decade or two.
Is it not the same chinese investors who are pulling out of Mulungushi Textiles in Kabwe?I am a little bit sceptical about the direction of some of our investors in Zambia.Goverment should make sure that the investors adhere to the social and enviromental welbeing of the Zambians.
Kelvin #5, How many textile companies have closed in Zambia,Uk,USA,Canada,Australia etc? Textile companies are no longer profitable in these countries hence we have the trend shift production to Asia. Nike,Adidas,Reebok, Lacoste,Clarks etc all have closed their factories in their countries and moved to places where it is cheaper and cost productive.
#2,the terrain is getting tougher but like Mbeki has said there is need to excercise utter caution when dealing with the east.They have pioneered this called Chambishi zone and have put up unconditional loans as a bait to tap from our resources.it would be better to have policies and strategies for mobilizing investment resources by and for locals. In other words, true and everlasting investments, are those done by indigenous people. Just as foreign investors can approach the banks and international markets to raise capital for investment – so should Zambians be able to, given government support.Recently Nujoma called formation of copper cartels as a measure to prevent rip offs by foreign investors.Zambia has failed to utilise the advantages of AGOA ,but instead has opted to ship cotton to RSA which in turn receive abundant benefits through export of finished products from cotton we export to them.We had Zamefa which was producing finished copper products(cables)but all this is
history,If investments will not be brought to Zambia through begging or in exchange with political baits tied to economic aid, why can’t Zambia’s investment climate be tuned in such a way that – only strings-free dollars can be attracted?
kuku #7,Mbeki is an intelligent person, he has allowed Chinese firms to invest in RSA, but to allow them, they too have to loosen and RSA have also invested in China. Most of these African countries are in debt and in need of every forex as much as possible.The problem is what can we gain from China and what can China gain from us, but the situation is like negotiating with a straved chap who is not only out of money but homeless. They take what comes along the way.
#8,its this sckeptism we are worried of,experience must be the best teacher,yes Mbeki is an intelligent chap and from his experience with these Shangai Joe’s is warning others to excercise ‘caution’ as means to make appropriate decisions.The catch phrase is the unconditional loans and bankrupting our resources.We dont know for how long these contracts will go,decades,centuries etc only LPM knows that is why we need to publicly scrutinise these deals.Would love your resources to be plundered with no meaningful developments?What have they done to chambeshi eversince they came?Even the machinery that they will be that you cant find anywhere should they leave?Let us not get blinded by the fact that we need Foreign investment,if this is the case I would even rather borrow from IMF/World bank for reconstruction than these people with a bad human right record now they have even turned to abuse of animals
Levy calls for more investment in COMESA
PRESIDENT Mwanawasa has called for the involvement of policy makers and the business community in crafting innovative ways of attracting investment in the right sectors of the economies in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region.
He said the export trade in COMESA was concentrated in primary commodities, a situation that placed the region at a disadvantage in terms of generating the levels of growth necessary to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving the levels of poverty by the 2015.
He was addressing the just ended 12th COMESA Heads of State and Government summit yesterday whose theme was ?Deepening Integration through Diversification and value Addition? held in Kenya.
The President said even though in the past two years, Zambia?s economy had recorded an average growth rate of five per cent per annum due to favourable commodity prices on the international market, this fell below the recommended rate of seven per cent to meet the MDGs..
The region had a mammoth task to create an environment that was conducive to enhance its productive and competitive capacities to produce value added goods and services.
He said the first and most important step was for the region to deepen its regional integration agenda by consolidating the Free Trade Area (FTA), which had so far brought considerable benefits to the 13 countries who were participating.
He said a solid FTA was an important cornerstone to the establishment of an effective Customs Union and that Zambia looked forward to embracing the remaining countries into the FTA as it worked towards establishing a Customs Union by 2008.
Mr Mwanawasa said a special ministerial task force on the customs union recommended a common external tariff structure for intermediate and finished goods, which had since been endorsed by the council of ministers.
He said the decision comes with a provision for flexibility and policy space for implementation, adding that this was an important decision, which demanded critical analysis to ensure that there was no backlash in its implementation.
Mr Mwanawasa said integration agenda such as infrastructure development, harmonisation of standards, policies and programmes were critical to the facilitation of regional trade and his delegation appreciated efforts that had so far been made with support from cooperating partners.
He told the meeting that there was still greater scope for improving the region?s infrastructure and that the infrastructure window of the COMESA fund would serve as an important source of development finance for the region.
Mr Mwanawasa returned home yesterday to a rousing welcome.
Among those who welcomed him were Vice-President Rupiah Banda, some Cabinet ministers and several Government officials and MMD members.
Gentlemen and ladies,
China will be the next economic super power of the world and they are on track to becoming one. I will be in China next week as part of our company’s realisation that no one in this world will survive with out any dealing with China. In short Zambia must be proactive in dealing with China, especially in setting up low cost manufacturing industries.
Watch out for India next and the West will be ****ed.
Thats still a dream, China is at least 30 years from causing any real threat to the west. China doesnt have yet the political and military machinery that sustains US and western hegemony.
China’s lawlessness in the international economy(undervalued yen and disregard for WTO rules, especially patent laws) is already under the spotlight it wont go on for much longer. Especially if, as it seems more likely, the GOP continues in 2008. To be honest, i cant see it happening in my lifetime.
What measures are there to monitor this investment?We need to do more than just getting excited at this level of investment.Issues like environmental impacts,regulation in as far as working conditions, wages and workers’ safety are concerned.We have had enough learning lessons from the Biggrim saga, Maamba coal,Chambishi itself otherwise we will be falling into the chinese black hole in this thristy desire for FDI.But by and large we need a more transparent policy regarding both foreign and local ivestors.this will be a one sided trade arrangement and all that will see is dumping of cheap finished goods from China.
Charles #12,the Chinese economy is been boosted by the Western super powers who have invested heavily in their economy i.e. Barclays Global,JP Morgan,Merrill Lynch etc and once they pull out of their economy,China will be back to where it was 5-10 years ago. People are only in China because it disregards human rights hence companies find it a cheaper place to produce goods and because of the market share in the country.That also applies to India.
Chilumba #14,with regard to measures,thats when now the govt steps in through parliament to amend the laws that were created in 1958. Now is the time for those 150 idle MP’s to debate something meaningful in Parliament. I wonder what Bills go through Parliament and whether Health and Safety regulation are ever debated. Effects of Global warming you just mentioned,Drought,Climate change,Minimum wage etc. Do our MP’s take to task the front benchers for govt policies or are they afraid to criticise for fear of been labeled “Rebel MP” .
We really need to put our Manda Hill House in order.
Kayata,#15I thot a system must be in place before dregulation and not the other way round,despite all these who does LPM discuss these issues with? If his ministers are all ‘yes bwana’ what more with an MP who has been walking all his life and has seen a priveledge to own a car, do you think he can even afford to open that mouth he last brushed during the days of ZCBC?Something must be amiss in our policy formulation and implementation in Zambia and the fact that we still work with a corrupt constitution just worsens everything.I support#12 assertions, China is still miles away from becoming what#11 is talking about.Its rush in recolonising Africa is also exposing their weaknesses and these are what may be Mbeki is warning his fellow Aricans to be wery of as alluded to by kuku#7,9,10.We are treading a very dangerous path in the rush to win votes from the electorate.
i guess zambia has a lot to gain by allowing foreign direct investment in the country. the main concern now should be creating jobs for your people and in the long run encourage business partnership between zambian business people and foreign ones be it chinese, indian or american. govenment concern today should be job creation, the citizen empowerment through share ownership, parnetships ect. this ofcourse need to be supported by property government policies and regulations.we like or not china is the economic power house. we need to do business with them though we need to negotiate win-win deals bearing in mind our environment, people and the economy at large.
Very interesting but at the same time sad where on earth can nation make policies to relieve foreign companies free of taxes the biggest income of a government. No wonder we are failing to implement health, education policies. Zambians wake up you have stand stand up and revolt this invasion because it brings back the colonial time where the west was taking aware ram material without paying a single ngwee. The results you know we were colonised and land was taken away. Just think of Palestians why are they suffering because they have no land and water. By the way BBC carries a air programme about the 6 day war that changed the middle east its worth listening.
#11 Charles Sampa JHB,you sound very excited with the chinese trip?Do you really know what you are going to do there? Or Do you want to inform this fora of your trip?Please pre empty the purpose of your trip to suit the point under discussion.And what do you mean low cost manufacturing industries,employing cheap way of making un reliable stuff?Like the technology being used at Maamba Coal mines?Outdated equipment?You are a disgrace