Thursday, March 28, 2024

Indian company to set up integrated sugar estate in Kawambwa

Share

Nava Bharat Ventures of India will this year set up an integrated sugar estate in the Luena Farm Block in Kawambwa District.

Luapula Province Minister Nickson Chilangwa who is currently in India on an investment tour conducted by Nava Bharat said today in Samalkot town that as part of the PF government’s programme to industrialise Luapula, the Indian firm would establish one of the biggest sugar plantations in Zambia.

Mr. Chilangwa who is accompanied to India by Kawambwa District Commissioner Ivo Mpasa said President Edgar Lungu had granted him permission to go and persue the matter further and make inroads.

The Minister said he and Mr. Mpasa were in India to familiarise themselves with the operations of the company as part of the investment tours and meetings regarding the implementation of the Luena Sugar project.

Mr. Chilangwa said the investment would not only create thousands of jobs for the people of Luapula Province but also empower local people to venture into outgrower schemes to supply sugarcane to the company.

Mr. Chilangwa said the investment would create about 1000 direct jobs and over 10 000 indirect jobs.

He said he had told the investors to not delay because President Edgar Lungu had already talked against procrastination in the implementation of various developmental projects.

“The honeymoon is over, it is time for work, work and work. An integrated sugar estate is finally coming to Kawambwa. We have visited out- grower farmers in Samalkot South of Hyderabad who supply the cane to Nava Bharat Ventures as part of our investment tour and meetings the implementation of an intergrated Sugar estate in the Luena Farm block, ” Mr. Chilangwa said.

Mr. Chilangwa said President Lungu’s desire was to completely change the face of Luapula Province and lift the people out of poverty.

He said President Lungu was in a hurry to actualise projects that had stalled by inviting various investors willing to invest in Luapula and the country as a whole.

21 COMMENTS

  1. Good news for the people of Kawambwa. Just ensure that employees are not exploited by giving them slave wages. Pantu ba nsamya ku kaso bapena.

    • LT please give us updates on the progress of this project. What happened to the massive palm oil plantation by the Taiwanese in Mpika? Was it just an excuse to get lots of land by those foreigners?

    • @1.1, BT LUNGU, I AM ALSO CONCERNED AND WORRIED THAT WHILE REPORTS OF SUCH INTENDED DEVELOPMENTS ALSO ANNOUNCED, THEY ARE NEVER AL ALL FOLLOWED UP TO SEE WHERE THE DEVELOPMENTS HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED OR NOT. BUT, IT IS ASKING FOR TOO MUCH TO ASK LT OR ANY OTHER NEWS MEDIA TO FOLLOW UP SUCH REPORTS AND EXPECT THEM TO UPDATE THE READERSHIP ON PROGRESS. JOURNALISM IN ZAMBIA FOR YOU. JUST ASK THEM WHEN THEY FOLLOWED UP AND REPORTED ABOUT THE ETHANOL FROM CASSAVA PROJECT WHICH THEY REPORTED SOME TIME BACK THAT A COMPANY FROM ASIA WAS DEVELOPING. WE NEED TO SEE THE DEVELOPMENTS IN PICTURES.

    • @1.1 Buck Teeth and @1.2 Peter. GOOD OBSERVATIONS! Our journalists in Zambia are BASIC STORY TELLERS! They DON’T ADD ANALYSIS to what they write and they RARELY BUILD ON PREVIOUS STORIES. Even from THIS STORY, what is AN INTEGRATED SUGAR ESTATE? What does it mean for us readers? Those with ideas on what they could have read or seen elsewhere have certainly gone to wonderland imagining all sorts of things to be happening like:cane production, crushing and sugar refining,production of commercial ethanol and molasses, production of electricity for own industrial use and sell into national grid etc..BUT IS THAT OR MORE OF WHAT THE INVESTOR IS PROMISING? The article needs to inform more but the problem is political reporting has taken precedence over everything else!!

  2. What do our local tycoons doing with their billions when all we hear about is investment pouring in from abroad? Have always wondered.

    • They put the billions in political cmpaidns for Plot One, e.g; Humphrey Mulemba, Enock Kavindel, Benjamin Yoram Mwila, Dean Namulya Mungomba, Anderson Kambela Mazoka, Charles Milupi, …… ok, na ka Hakainde Hicilema…!

  3. Fake story trying to save face because of the level of incompetence in this PF directionless boat. How do you force an investor to come and invest instead of lobbying? If you have created an enabling environment with attractive investment opportunities they will be flocking on their own. Instead you go on expeditions just to feed your eyes and make some travelling allowances and nothing to write home about about, nonsense.

  4. Nava Bharat is the company that owns Maamba thermal power station

    They will surely pull the project off

    Its good news for Luapula and we will export sugar to DRC

    Well Done

    • I am delighted for Zambia and people of Kawambwa. Please just make sure that the investment is real, and Zambians are employed in well paid and meaningful jobs. PF should not give away too much land than is necessary.

    • @4.1, Is it YOU really talking? You sound reasonable and sober. Thank you, you have finally weaned yourself off IT…!

  5. That’s welcomed. But ba fikala always pay less and blame sales, even when the graph is rising! I know these Indians too well.

  6. Zambians can do the project….. Let us believe in ourselves. When shall Zambians rise to the occassion and do it ourselves……
    Let us do the PESTEL,BCG, SWOT analyses in our investment decisions. Taking a challenge to develop our country is better than rely on foreign support totally. Zambians must own up to the challenge.
    Luapula , like any province needs local investors. I prefer to set an example rather than talk politics……
    Currently , I have farmed 20hectares of soya beans on cash basis , no bank loan. I did serious investment planning before farming.
    Let us spend time wisely for the growth of our economy…….
    Children of God, all things are possible . God can give us the rains but without our good planning will not achieve much….
    May God helps us to be serious as…

  7. @7 YOU ARE TOTALLY RIGHT AND YOU ARE VERY INSPIRING. I WISH ZAMBIA COULD HAVE AT LEAST A MILLION PEOPLE OF YOUR CALIBRE. ZAMBIA NEEDS ZAMBIANS TO DEVELOP IT. BUT, AS YOU AND OTHERS HAVE RIGHTLY POINTED OUT WE ZAMBIANS WAIT FOR FOREIGNER TO COME AND DEVELOP OUR COUNTRY. EVEN THE POLICIES OF ZAMBIA HAVE BEEN STRUCTURED AS SUCH OR AT LEAST PRACTICALLY EXECUTED AS SUCH. THERE ARE A NUMBER OF MILLIONAIRES IN ZAMBIA WHO COULD HAVE EASILY INVESTED IN SUCH, “NOT-ROCKET-SCIENCE” UNDERTAKINGS. BUT, ALAS, IT’S A FAR CRY TO LOOK UP TO THEM.

    • Peter@ 8, Zambia has serious investors who are equal to the task just like foreign investors. Good example is robmwale @ 7. The problem is our presidents & ministers because they don’t communicate to citizens their developmental ideas. They just communicate to foreign investors for things which Zambians can easily do.

  8. @ 7 Rob and @ Peter, I am 100% WITH YOU! Part of the TROUBLE is that OUR OWN BUSINESSMEN WITH MEANINGFUL CAPACITY SEEM TO BE CHASING QUICK MONEY that does not require long term investment like trading, government and mines tenders. In the end we are LOOSING OPPORTUNITIES FOR STRATEGIC OWNERSHIP OF THE ECONOMY TO FOREIGNERS who are ON TOP RUNNING LONG TERM INDUSTRIES like this one, are ALSO GETTING CONTROL OF THE LAND WHERE THEY OPERATE SUCH VENTURES. The only consolation in this project is that it will have an outgrowers scheme which could give some people some means of earning an income beyond salaries!!

  9. @ Bwafyaa 9, I agree with you over our billionaire businessmen chasing sweets 7 tenders. However, the problem is to do with govt. All citizens activities are tied to developmental projects of govt & you can’t do otherwise. If govt advertises tenders, citizens will respond. Even projects like this one should be communicated to locals first including availability of land. But what they preach to locals is that mukula tree is for 15 years imprisonment, traditional land is not for use, at the same time they are giving it away to foreigners. They only show that courtesy to street vendors such that even those who excel continue getting more vending space in all streets of the country. Maize export is a crime but South African companies they buy & export openly.

    • They need to do research for all natural resources & developmental processes needed to utilise these resources including mukula tree, then communicate to locals. What we need is onother research company for Zambians, ZDA & IDC are strictly for foreigners. I have met ZDA at various foreign fairs & when you inquire from them & realise that you are Zambian they just shut you up that they want foreign investors not Zambians. They just announce when they are already in India that they are looking for investors to come up with such projects. When leaving they just go quietly for things which locals can do individually or collectively without realising that every investment exported is revenue & forex exported. Who invites them to invest in their countries?

  10. We wish this project all the success. We would like to see prices of sugar to be lowered which are presently exploited Zambia Sugar Company.

Comments are closed.

Read more

Local News

Discover more from Lusaka Times-Zambia's Leading Online News Site - LusakaTimes.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading