President Edgar Lungu said on Wednesday that his government would like to see increased Chinese investment through private-public partnership in the southern African nation.
President Lungu, speaking in an interview with Xinhua at his office ahead of his visit to China this week, said his government is trying to see how it could entice more Chinese firms to invest in the southern African nation through private-public investment.
“You see, currently the world has become a global village and mostly we are trying to see what we can get from our inter-state relationship and in so doing we have always striven for a win-win or mutual benefit result,” said the president.
He said Zambia would like to have a situation where Chinese firms investing in Zambia take on board Zambian partnerships and in this respect Zambia is also trying to see whether it can entire more Chinese firms to come and invest in Zambia by way of private- public partnership.
The Zambian leader is expected to attend the 2015 Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual conference, which will also be attended by other leaders.
BFA is the most prestigious and premier forum for leaders in government, business and academia in Asia and other continents aimed at sharing visions on the most pressing issues. This year’s theme is “Asia’s New Future: Towards a Community of Common Destiny. ”
The Zambian president further said his government was keen to have Chinese partnership in the tourism industry so that the country could also benefit from the increasing Chinese tourists coming to the African continent.
“I will talk about tourism for example, we will look at this carefully and see how we can partner with the Chinese to higher levels so that the Chinese tourists do not just end up in our neighboring countries but end up in Zambia as well,” he added.
While appreciating Chinese investment in Zambia, the Zambian leader indicated the need for constant dialogue and interaction between leaders of the two countries to share experiences and ideas.
Zambia, he said, offers great investment opportunities for foreign investors due to a number of factors such as prudent economic management, political stability, good governance and consistent economic growth of around 6.3 percent per annum in the last 10 years.
“The government is determined to continue with this projection of growth going forward and it is for this reason that I would like to believe that Zambia is indeed a right place to come to in terms of investment for now and the future,” he added.
China has so far invested a total of 2.6 billion U.S. dollars in various projects in Zambia, employing about 50,000 locals.
Yes, go and Bring them with you Mr President,
The Chinese are good hard working race. So far so good with Chinese investment, however be worry of Chinese chicken and tomato sellers. They are not so much as Investors. Go well Mr President. God bless our President.
In an economy worth investing in, there is no need to persuade any investor to come over; their business includes looking out for favourable investment destinations. Lay out the foundation first for favourable investment returns and see how many Chinese or indeed other investors from other countries fall over themselves to invest in Zambia.
The Chinese hegemony in the lime green of dominant economic development and development.
They are taking over after the “Great Wall” was widely opened. Soon, Zed will have 14 million ‘Cho~Cho~Liz’ as population growth is also their other expertise. In 10years time, ‘Zambia’ll introduce a new tribe & province called~”Cho~Cho” & “Cho~Cho~Li”, respectively.
Otherwise, Chinas’ economic prosperity is viable & they are great business counterparts of results.
Despite his position of being a visionless leader Edgar Lungu, I wish you well so that this plummeted economy & decaying Kwacha, can be a priority of PF. Otherwise “tourism” is not the only hope, but manufacturing facilities will be the best.
The Skeleton Key
~206~
Ifintu is economy not Lungu!
“China tour” or China Medical Tour? Why can’t we be told the truth?
why do people from eastern like trotting? i wonder whats wrong with these people..all the time mu ndeke..hmmmmm umwina chipata ne ndeke ni phone na simcard.
Sata went to London to woo investors but came back in a casket.
I hope Lungu will not do a “donchi kubeba” on us like Sata.
How can investors be encouraged to invest in a country with a fast depreciating currency and locals busy moving their assets abroad for fear of economic collapse?
Only dodgy guys ready to share Chinese loans with PF officials will come to invest in Zambia.
Reality is, PF can not borrow from the West any more because its credit record is almost like Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. PF sent a delegation to negotiate more Bond loans but only managed to fish a dry one.
Now even the Chinese are demanding for loan repayment before more money can be loaned to Zambia.
This so called investment trip is just smoke and mirrors meant to blind poor Zambians into thinking that Lungu is going to woo investors in China when he is actually going for a kidney transplant.
Lungu better get back alive!
For sure we need real investors to curb unemployment that people are crying for so much.But do not let them grab our land because our children will be left with nothing(let them lease).The Governmet some time back talked about grabbing part of the land for those who have massive land.
Their goes flip flop again!
Dear Mr President, Edgar Lungu, republican president of Zambia, the naturally beautiful country that looks like a butterfly, please take heed to this friendly advise. You are starting from a wrong side by touring investor countries trying to woo them while there are still pending issues back home.
What you need to do is to fix the monetary and fiscal policies, mining policies, issues relating education, tourism, tribalism, nepotism, transparency in institutes that deal with public funds, good democratic practices, etc. Once these have been sorted out, you will not need to travel overseas to entice anybody to invest in Zambia, no! Investors will come.
I know a lot of Zambians in my community and we are constantly talking about investing back home.
Quote: “In an economy worth investing in, there is no need to persuade any investor to come over; their business includes looking out for favourable investment destinations”
@Misango…, can you name one country in the world with such an Utopian economy? Stop lying!
The best of the world economies still have to beg for foreign investments into their countries. Even the mighty USA, Barack Obama, and presidents before him, have all attended these foreign economic gatherings to encourage investments into the US. Yes, favorable investment conditions help, but how do you expect business men and women in foreign lands to know about your country’s “favorable investment conditions” if you don’t go out there and do the SELLING? And it is the President who is suited to do just that!
PPP should be encouraged and selling chickens and tomatoes should be left to the locals. The problem with some Zambians is the terrible work culture as compared to the Chinese nationals. Nokutemwa ukusenda indalama before they even do the work.
@Chox.com
You are a very funny man. Very funny! You seem to know the chinese are up to no good but because of your allegiance to ka Lungu you’re holding your tongue with some gibberish praise song for ka Lungu. You funny man you!
Now the Zambiansellout will be speedet up and soon you can say “One Zambia one China”and later you complain to be colonialised.
ama investors bama Bonanza, come next year we are voting for HH next year. Zambia needs to be run by some one from private sector. Not these guys whose work culture is an imaginable.
Lungu would not hide telling people that he’s going for medical issues. Some retards still living in the past. Lungu is transparent and believe me you that his trip to china is purely business and means well for zambia. Australia is now grounding because china has reduced imports and zambia stands to benefit from Chinese investment.
If u r smart enuf u wil it is obvious its for medical treatment because he wil not b recieved by the president of china….Enjoy ur power and d country while it last mr.lungu..OH AFRICA
Too many childish comments on LT nowadays. Amazing!
This man is the best to take zambia out of our economic woes,he is indeed the chosen one and only a fool would disagree wit me
Deal with refuges from Rwanda. They have taken up a lot of space. They are involved in a lot of illegal businesses and they don’t follow local govnt laid down by laws. why are they still in the country when their country is at peace. Do we really need them. Zambians wake up. Hospitality does not mean being taken over
I hope you do understand that refugees are protected under international/UN conventions Zambia is a signatory to, don’t you?
You can’t just wake up one day and “deal” with people under “refugee status” and chase them away. Whatever illegal things these people are engaged in is as a result of the Zambian economy not being able to absorb them fully. Otherwise they are, by international law, entitled to work and earn a living in Zambia for as long as they maintain and adhere to the conditions and laws governing their refuge status.
And just because you bwana @[fake] zedian have a scratchy throat about the issue is no reason to start hounding any refugees in Zambia. And how does the so called “refugee problem” have to do with the President trip to China?
@ Chile 1 ulishilu! Vodka cant be the man to take us out of this economic malaise. The man has no vision. Where there is no vision, the people perish.
Zambia is likely to perish under the rule of vodka
We need HH…..NI ZEE
Ala weshilu niwe,and am glad u said vodgar,while I said edgar.see the difference? Wetole iwe
Was that photo taken in China? I wonder if our planes are allowed to fly across the oceans to Asia, Europe, Australia or America.
Ignore China at our on peril! Any smart government in the world gladly does business with China, the 2nd largest economy in the world. Zambia is even lucky that its leaders get invited to this prestigious gathering of some of the world economic power houses in Asia.
Zambia can surely take advantage of this seemingly good/cordial relationship we have with China—a relationship which started decades ago—during the Mao Tse-tung (Chairman Mao) and Kaunda era. The only thing we have to guard against as a country is exploitative and one-sided kind of interactions with the Chines. But ignoring this emerging economic giant would be myopic and counter productive.
Western countries love to demonize the Chines in public yet their economies would crumble without China. Go figure!
contd…
I know a lot of Zambians in my community and we are constantly talking about investing back home. I hear big business men discussing investment in Africa. People out there are ready to invest in a stable country, good policies, etc., however, they are not ready to risk their investments in a country that is unstable in almost everything.
I think you should address the above issues before you can start touring the world.
Thanks.
Inviting the Chinese to invest in tourism is like asking a child to keep an eye on some Swiss milk chocolate.
Lungu, do you value the few elephants, rhinos and lions that we have? Poaching galore!!!! Except this time they would have a free pass to do so from Lungu.
Lungu, who invited you to go to China? You may be out of office next year and you are busy globe trotting and creating your own hype.
You governance style lacks passion and urgency. Stay home more often to serve your people. And have substance in what you say because right now you really suck. All you seem to say is …”You see….blah blah blah”.
I hope you are reading some of our comments to better yourself so you serve your country better.
@IndigoTyrol, what can anybody, let alone the President learn from such shallow rants like yours? First of all, investing in Tourism does NOT necessarily mean owning or controlling game parks. There is a lot that makes up a good tourism experience for foreign visitors. It could be good lodges, hotels, banking, catering, transportation, and a host other amenities which would cause tourists to wan’t to come back over and over and leave that Forex in Zambia!
But to simpletons like yourself all you see is Rhinos/Elephants in game parks being decimated. In any case, Rhinos are disappearing in most African countries as we speak without the Chines involved in the tourism industry in any significant way. So who is the real enemy really? Surely it ain’t the Chines going out to poach!
@ mr intelligent
you can keep your investments in the diaspora were you are other wise we are not interested in it after all its not even suffice our erring economy ,should will beg for our own to invest in their native country? no, Zambia has survived without investments from you guys in Diaspora.
@doss, normally I dont respond to other bloggers, especially those that cant analyze basic issues. What Mr Lungu is doing is the same as an estate agent who is advertizing for a town house or cottage that have cracks, no private garden, no Wendy house, no private parking, etc, etc..
Zambia is that leaking town house that first needs fixing before it can be advertised. Once its fixed, painted and the surroundings sorted, there will be no need to advertise this house. Neighbours will see it and they will pass the info around. Tourists will hear about it. If you dont understand this simple analogy, then there is indeed no hope for Zambians.
From what I hear on the streets, the Zambians who remained are envious of those who left and made it. What a shame.
He is going to China to beg for more loans…how are these empty tins going to balance the budget since they are reversin the mineral tax policy for 2015.
yambayamba – we know all about refuge conventions. But do you think the Rwandise who are in Zambia understand those conventions. There are conditions attached to being a refuge. Ask your brothers and sisters in the compounds on the pain that is being inflicted on them because of these people. With the money that is circulating among themselves they are bribing their way through in order to freely do their illegal businesses. How do you view the business of illegal drinking places as a visitor. Remember there is a record that their country is fast developing while destroying ours. I would rather a Zambia destroys his country than a Rwandise who will one day fly away when things are bad.
“China has so far invested a total of 2.6 billion U.S. dollars in various economies of Zambia”
LT this is poor journalism and poor English … Zambia is just one economy.
Kamwendo mu air, kuwayawaya fye
Going to visit your so called best friend at his house but only to be entertained by his children or relatives because he does not have time for you although he is in the house! Some trips our leaders make??