The Chinese government has pledged to increase investments in the Zambian economy to over US$3 billion.
And the Chinese community in Zambia will on February 7, 2015 celebrate the annual Chinese Spring Festival Temple Fair at Levy Junction in Lusaka.
Chinese Ambassador to Zambia Yang Youming said during a press briefing in Lusaka that his country will deepen bilateral trade with Zambia.
Mr Youming said the continuity of government following the peaceful January, 20 presidential by-elections has provided yet another opportunity for China to invest extensively in Zambia’s economy.
Mr Youming said Zambia should expect more of Chinese investment in 2015 in various sectors of the economy especially in mining, agriculture and tourism.
The ambassador noted that Chinese investment in Zambia stands at US$3 billion and that the figure will increase once new Chinese investments come into the country.
He expressed optimism that the two countries will strengthen and continue to enjoy excellent relations.
And Mr Youming said the Chinese Spring Festival Temple Fair will mark the Lunar New Year for the people of China.
He said the fair will provide an opportunity to Chinese and Zambian people to
promote friendship, and engage in cultural exchange and mutual understanding.
He said Zambian and Chinese artists will grace the festival that will also showcase a myriad of Chinese cuisine and interactive games.
The Chinese community in Zambia introduced the Spring Festival Temple Fair in 2013 to celebrate their Lunar New Year which falls on February, 29.
The Spring Festival which is also referred to as the Year of the Goat is also celebrated in countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines as well as China towns found in many other countries.
Lets sharpen and fine-tune our labour laws, or else our citizens will continue to be abused at places of work. Equally, Zambians should show good work ethics to earn their keep. It has to be a two-way thing.
Am just not for the idea of mining, when will investers come without thinking of mining at all??,
we need manufacturing investers!!
@1.1, MINING WOULD MAKE A LOT OF SENSE IF MINERALS WHERE TRANSFORMED INTO POWER TOOLS (MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES), SUCH AS CONSTRUCTION, MINING AND ELECTRONICS GADGETS SUCH AS COMPUTERS, RADIOS AND OTHER ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS.
“He said Zambian and Chinese artists will grace the festival that will also showcase a myriad of Chinese cuisine and interactive games.”
BABALISHA AMA ‘T’ BORN YATUBWA AMA ZAMBIANS NOMBA.
Better Labor laws, Zambians getting of their lazy butts and all shall be well. Some Zambians I might add.
Its always like this ka…when you go to jail, some strongman or woman will give you a piece of bread, nsima with nkuku, smokes or even a place to sleep…and you are sooooooo sure you have met a kind person but in actual sense you have just sold your soul and whatever little peace of mind you were left with…beware of gifts my dear Zambia…
@1.1 – Chief analyser,
You are absolutely right. It bugs me too. We need to make deliberate effort to activate other sectors of our natural resources, AND attract manufacturing. But whether we like it or not, such a move would require capacity and vision.
It can be likened to starting a fire to warm up and cook food. You strike a matchstick and first light dry grass wedged among small pieces of dry wood. Once the small pieces of wood catch fire, you then introduce bigger logs of wood. It is these bigger logs of wood that will bring warmth to a large family sitting around a fire, and cook enough food for everyone to eat.
Copper mining is our dry grass mixed with small pieces of wood. Our problem is, and has been that, having got the fire started …..
having got the fire started on grass + small pieces of wood, we have quickly sat down and expect it to warm us all up. We have not pushed into the fire the bigger logs .. i.e. Agriculture, Tourism, Forestry, Carbon Credits, Broadband, Manufacturing etc..etc. Instead, we are busy jostling for space and elbowing one another to get to the small fire in the middle. And this small fire keeps threatening to go out because Copper is a wasting asset as we all know. But imagine the big fire that would result if we seriously pushed these God given big logs in. We would all sit comfortably in a large circle. So, it’s just vision and capacity lacking.
And God will ask us ‘What else did you want me to do for you? I gave you everything’.
Cactus that is wisdom. It is up to you and I to develop Zambia. Our leaders are blind it seems to all the God given greatness.
@Cactus, you are right so is Chief Analyzer. What we need is the fact that you a mentioning. While these investors are coming in to mine all our minerals because us zambians can not do it ourselves, then we should come up with manufacturing industries, we have a lot of engineers that are capable of producing the best technology in our own countries, the problem is we lack the foundation, what I mean by that is the issue of not having money to expand our ideas. In our country if you want to borrow money from the bank, they want you to give them security worth the same amount joy are looking for, they don’t care about your business plan, same thing you are looking got a job and someone what’s a cut from you before they can employee you. There is too much nchekeleko that’s one big problem.
In a global village we are living now.It is impossible to develop without foreign investments.Wether money is coming from China or anywhere else it does not matter.What is needed is investment in our economy.All sectors mentioned by the chinese are very key to our livelihoods.
@Mwanawakwitu, good point it’s up to us to change our mother Zambia, it starts from how we vote. We still have the mentality of buy me a beer I will vote for you. You see these politicians comes in to win, so it doesn’t matter how they will do it as long as they get it. They will tell you what they want you to hear and once they get there, it’s a different story. Who can put money in your pocket in 90 days after being voted for. May His Soul Rest in Peace. This should be the time to wake up and do right. All these small countries that were behind us will come and pass us and be better than zambia. Look at Ethiopia once the impoverished country in the world, today they are better than zambia, come on now, they have very little to build a country as compared to what we have. I will…
Toxic invstment especially to the environment and their labourers. The Chinese are not originators, they hack into computers stealing designs and how-to knowledge. Pathetic humans!
@Paul Erdos, that’s not the point it’s called being creative. Those Chinese you have heard of hacking computers are not the one investing in our country. What I’m trying to say is that while these guys are coming in our country bringing investments we need to wake up and learn to live on our own one day. It’s been 50 years since we got to be on our own but it looks like yesterday. We are still going out to seek for medical attention, even a small sickness you can die in zambia, this is because we have so much greedy people in power. Once we learn to be civil servants then we are going to change. Paul you can agree with me that a Zambian can excel so high once exposed to good quality things. Look at the education we go through just to qualify to the next level. The time has come to…
@Mwanawakwitu, I continue.we have so much to build our country, we may have no Oil to produce like other countries but we have so many minerals to take us there. How can a country that is just a dessert be doing better than zambia, this tell us that our country is very rich but the people we put in the office are dumb and they don’t see it. When the colonials came to zambia they surveyed how much copper and other minerals were there, they came and left but we still have all those minerals, copper, cobalt, manganese ,quartz , emerald just to mention a few and someone would say we are poor nation, no it’s the president and his cabinet and the rest that have authority to rule the country that are poor, I’m not from a poor country, I’m from the riches country in minerals with poor…
$3 billion to buy a country. That’s a bargain.
It’s effing hard to believe that 50 years after “Independence” self-determination still eludes us.