Vice President Inonge Wina has urged business houses in India to consider investing and exploiting the huge resources which Zambia and the entire African continent are endowed with.
Mrs. Wina said Zambia was ready to allow Indian investors to exploit the abundant investment opportunities that exist in various sectors of her economy on a win-win basis.
She pointed out that the country has a huge power deficit hence Indian business houses should invest in the electricity generation, supply and distribution business in Zambia.
She was speaking in New Delhi in India today when she addressed the India-Africa business forum hosted ahead of tomorrow’s third India-Africa forum summit.
The Vice President said with the 40 percent of the entire Southern African Development Community (SADC) water bodies which Zambia hosts, investors should be guaranteed of a lucrative business in the energy sector.
“Zambia currently has an installed capacity of 2,316 megawatts of power while the hydropower resource potential stands at an estimated 6,000 megawatts,” she explained.
Mrs. Wina further said Zambia has however embarked on various projects in the electricity subsector with other countries in the region.
She cited the Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya interconnector which is expected to trade 2,800 megawatts of electricity, the Zambia-Democratic Republic of Congo interconnector and the Zimbabwe-Zambia-Botswana-Namibia interconnector as some of the long term projects aimed at addressing the current power shortage.
She said these projects were also a way of promoting economic regional integration among countries in the southern African region.
“As a way of promoting the public-private partnership investment in the renewable energy subsector with the help of the World Bank, government has developed a renewable energy resource map of the country with the initial focus on the wind and solar resources,” she said.
Mrs. Wina further said government has also adopted an open access regime to the national grid which will enable independent power producers to use the national grid in transporting power to their off takers.
“To this effect, a grid code has been adopted and this is to demonstrate that the government of Zambia recognises the important role that renewable energy can play,” she stressed.
Additionally, Mrs. Wina has called on Indian investors to venture into pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and agricultural investment among other sectors.
“I wish to reiterate government’s commitment in providing an enabling business environment that supports private sector participation,” she said.
Mrs. Wina is in India to attend the third India African forum summit which will take place tomorrow at Indira Gandhi stadium in New Delhi.
Minister of Agriculture Given Lubinda, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Rayford Mbulu and his Ministry of Health counterpart, Chitalu Chilufya are in Mrs. Wina’s delegation to India.
Ba mwenye awe ine nakana…
Go for investors who will bring a culture of risk taking, entrepreneurship, good governance, philanthropy etc, not these brown envelopes guys! Poor attracting poor.
CAN THIS OLD WOMAN NOT STAY IN HER OWN COUNTRY AND SIT WITH THE HEADBOY AND TRY TO FIND A WAY TO THE HARDSHIPS WE ZAMBIANS ARE GOING THROUGH? MORE MONEY SPEND ON TRAVEL ETC AND I SUPPOSE WITH A LARGE FOLLOWING. SHAMELESS LOT. 51 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE BUT WE ARE STILL DEPENDED BEGGING FOR MONEY ALL OVER THE WORLD. ZAMBIA IS RICH IN MINERALS? SO WHY CAN T WE ZAMBIANS INVEST MONEY INTO MINING AGRICULTURE AND ALL ELSE. THE MONEY SPEND ON GLOBE TROTTING IS ENOUGH TO EMPOWER SOME ZAMBIANS TO RUN AT LEAST ONE MINE.
Would have been better to attract Investors from elsewhere, if the aim is to grow the economy and create jobs. However, if you aim to populate and keep country stagnant, then fair and fine.
F U C K this ! Why cant she “woo” Zambian investment???!!! Im so fed up of this crap. Most of us here are diasporans, we cant even get a piece of land to build a house back in Zed that will actually bring in investment by creating massive employment opportunities and contribute to solving their housing crisis ! Remove these f o o l s from power!