Thursday, March 28, 2024

Economic growth is due to attractive investment climate, says Mines minister

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Minister of Mines and Mineral Development Kalombo Mwansa has attributed the growth of the Zambian economy to the attractive investment climate in the mining sector.

Dr Kalombo Mwansa said added that the good policies put in place by government had also played a significant role in the steady growth of the economy saying economic growth cannot be achieved without good government policies.

He said this during the official closing of the Africa Mining Congress organized by the Mining International Natural Resources Enterprise (MINE LLC) at Zambezi Sun hotel in Livingstone yesterday.

He said Zambia was doing very well in mining activities adding that this was proved last year when it scooped the ‘International Country Award for Outstanding Achievement for a country that has shown the most improvement in terms of attractiveness to mineral investors during the 2006/2007 period.’

Dr Mwansa said the objective of the congress was to enhance cooperation among developers and financial institutions and hoped that it would be a fixed feature on the calendar of local and international mining companies.

Meanwhile, Secretary to the Treasury , Evans Chibiliti has called on all mining companies alleging that the new tax regime translates to a 60 percent tax rate to submit their financial models to government for proper clarification.

Mr. Chibiliti said government had formulated a solid financial model that translated to a 47 percent tax rate before increasing mine taxes and all mining companies that had models that reflected a tax rate of 60 percent needed to meet with the state to see where they had gone wrong.

He was speaking in an interview with ZANIS in Livingstone yesterday.

Mr. Chibiliti said all companies with project proposals that were made before the increase in mineral royalties could still proceed and make a profit as long as they clearly understood what to include in their financial models.

However, the Secretary to the Treasury was happy to note that some sectors in the mining industry had welcomed the new tax law saying it was reasonable and could be supported.

He said government was of the view that a fair and balanced tax law for all parties concerned was key in sustaining the mining industry as it reduced the motivation for any of them to change it.

5 COMMENTS

  1. I completely agree with the Minister when he says that the economic growth is due to the good investment climate accompanied by good government policies. My only advice is that let us not relax but consistently work hard to sustain this growth and even achieve more growth. Further more, let not the growth be on paper and merely academic but its effects should be clearly perceptible in the economy through improved standard of living of the masses especially the poor.

  2. excuse me Mr secretary to the treasury what was the composition of your committee. now you are at the brink of lengthy,costly,embarrassing litigation.you were not advised properly.the principles of natural justice as well as the principles of good governance provide that your decision making should be participatory and consultative.where were the stakeholders in all this.each development agreement i believe is unique in its own way and in terms of the financial agreement with the developors banks these of course has a bearing on their repayment plans and so the tax factored into these development agreements is critical.there is also the issue of recapitalisation which will in turn sustain th

  3. cont?…the issue of recapitalisation which will sustain the life of the mine and in turn add to the GDP of the countrythen there is the issue of the different mining activities and the variations in the type of mineral ore mined.this translates into the fluctuations in the operational costs and the difference on what is recouped depending on the wolrd market prices of the minerals we still have to bear in mind the issue of the recapitalisation and repayment of the loan from the bank remember.and the amount of money pumped in2 each project varies needless to mention we also have the greenfields project ok. i am not saying that what you did was wrong in principle but the procedure that was

  4. ….cont/the procedure that was adopted was wrong in a democratic society?come on!fine you are trying to level the playing field but the circumstances for each mine developer varies that is why you needed to hold consultative meeting and even proceed to renegotiation instead of coming up with a blanket statement and trying to rush it into some piece of law. what will you gain if there is costly litigation against the state and you are estopped from issuing your si or even amending your mines act.please open your selves up to further consultation especially with the aggrieved parties.twapappata let us do this right instead of just enjoying the aftermath chilli con carne from south america.

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