The Industrial Development Corporation has clarified that the corporation is not a replica of the defunct INDECO under the UNIP regime.
IDC Chief Executive Officer Andrew Chipwende said the creation of the IDC was not meant to bring back INDECO.
Mr Chipwende said unlike INDECO whose main focus was nationalisation, the IDC’s main role is to identify new industrial ventures.
He said the creation of the IDC is not unique to Zambia saying other neighbouring countries such as South Africa and Botswana both have their own Industrial Development Corporations.
Mr Chipwende said the IDC’s other role is also to play as a catalyst towards industrial production by identifying private sector venture where it can co-invest by way of capital injection.
It is a corporation of corporations, its a parastatal of parastatals, its just the same as indeco, mr chipwende my brother! Just admit it and you will lose nothing at all !!!
The only concern about it is that its like a landlord of a commercial building engaging into the business his tenants(private sector) are doing, this in the long run results in the whipping out of the private sector, thereby killing off competition and quality.
Chipwende should address the directive to bundle all state owned companies like ZCCM-IH, Zamtel, ZR, Zesco etc under IDC and then explain how that is different from Zimco. Zimco was never about nationalisation. It was about controlling national resources and redirecting their use. That’s how ZCCM ended up investing in lodges, farms, elevator and laundry companies – instead of mines. IDC is headed the same route. Worse, as Chimbwili explained, all the jobs at IDC are for PF cadres and relatives. It is no longer about Zambia and Zambians. See what has happened at Zamtel and Zesco under PF.
#ChagwaMustFall
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The reason it is being revived is basically to speedup the creation of the so called employment as the government has perhaps noticed that the private sector has not been so fast to create the jobs at the pace it wants! Hence this move.
But the question is, what is the business plan and investment plan for this parastatal of parastatals?
In the world of investment, there is a saying we use called ” buy/ build a lot of a few” meaning concentrate on a few successful business and grow their portfolio! But what I see in IDC is the opposite ” its build/ buy a lot of alot” and eventually you get lost in jungle of businesses that you can’t even grow properly and eventually the holding company just collapses!!!
And these are the ideas of the late illiterate dictator.These are the things that should have been buried with him.