Government says it has approved the National Industrial Policy to promote economic growth of the country through industrialisation.
Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Christopher Yaluma said previously industrial policy issues were covered under the Commercial, Trade and Industrial Policy, which covered both trade and industrial development matters.
He added that the revised standalone Industrial Policy would allow for emphasis on industrial development and compel industries operating in Zambia to process local raw materials into finished products.
According to a press statement issued by First Secretary for Press and Public Relations at the Zambian Mission in South Africa Naomi Nyawali, Mr. Yaluma was speaking on the side-lines of the SADC Council of Ministers Conference being held in Pretoria.
The Minister said the revised policy will help promote the creation of more industries in the country.
Mr. Yaluma observed that industries across all sectors that were getting raw materials locally will be expected to start adding value to such materials in order for the country to draw tangible maximum benefits.
The Minister observed that processing of raw materials into finished products as expected by the revised policy will help revive the manufacturing industry in Zambia.
Mr. Yaluma stated that the move will help create employment for the local people as well as increase government’s revenue base.
He added that value addition to local raw materials will further create business opportunities for local Small and Medium Enterprises through supply of goods and services that will result in helping government achieve its goal of wealth creation for all its people.
And Mr. Yaluma said his Ministry has also finished reviewing the Trade Policy which has been submitted to other line ministries for consultations.
He said government was developing the revised and standalone Trade Policy in order to bring it into tandem with among others, the aspirations of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) which Zambia is expected to sign once consultations are concluded.
He pointed out that once the revised trade policy was approved, it would prevent the dumping of goods and services onto the Zambian market from other countries and enable Zambia become an equal trade partner both at regional and continental level.
How this man Christopher Yaluma is still a minister is beyond me..I mean this man is an empty suit, a non performer yet is rewarded with ministry portfolio after portfolio, surely has PF not got backbenchers to fill these roles.
Chris where are you going to get the money for economic growth through industrialization?
So industries were not allowed under PF?
Now it’s approved.
Can you compel a farmer to also become a miller or producer of stock feeds? Can you compel a miner to also produce copper cables? They will tell you they lack the expertise and what do you do to them after that? Govt has formed IDC Ltd. Why can’t it take the lead? I do not see this succeeding but I wish those who think it’s good policy all the best.
Whoever comes in power after PF please ensure that these guys pay for looting the country
“He added that the revised standalone Industrial Policy would allow for emphasis on industrial development and compel industries operating in Zambia to process local raw materials into finished products” – This what we need. COMPEL THESE MINING COMPANIES TO BRING ON BOARD MANUFACTURERS TO START ADDING VALUE TO COPPER, COBALT and other minerals so that we can start producing more engineering products! My ONLY WORRY IS A MINISTER WHO HAS TRACK RECORD OF LUKEWARM APPROACH TO WORK AND HAS NO RECORD DELIVERING RESULTS THE NATION CAN TALK ABOUT!!
Stop talking and let it be done already!
The BIG question is, where is the MONEY or investors because the only big savior is owed big time. And also most of the big business investors from country have been heading to Australia and other African countries in the last 10 years. Mines should’ve have been properly managed. What a mess.
He is going to do it through EXIM Bank loans that do not allow that ..look at that whooping $1.2billion loan for that highway where you gain nothing apart from paying back with interest. The Chine comes with machinery does the job and moves on to another country of docile African foools.
@4 Nkana Kitwe, your assertions sound far fetched! Which investor in the mining sector has closed shop to head to Australia or other African country. In Zambia they get minerals out of our ground free of charge, subsidized electricity, tax evasion and always threatening government each time they are asked to pay a right share of taxes. How can they run to Australia where actually a good part of them come from and know that tax evasion is a serious crime, they have stayed put in Zambia where they can arm twist government!!
I have been hearing this since PF came into power but all i have been seeing are fire tenders, ambulances, expensive roads, non value adding infrastructure just a few to mention. Ba minister when are you going to implement what you preach. all the money you borrowed while you could has been exhausted on haphazard projects. tell us where you will get monies for new industries. The last drop of our contribution through taxes is failing even to pay civil servants on time.
If they were serious they would have been modifying van chassis into Ambulances but they like stealing
The europeans took hundreds of years to get from where most of africas nations are to where they are now. Industrialization is not something that can be done with the snap of a finger and the passing of a law. Yet it is possible, one need only look at south korea, once the poor half looking jealeous at those who lived in the north. It was even worse of than many african nations are today – and the only resource they ever had were their people. We have hundreds of nations on this world, many of the biggest problems a nation has today have been solved over and over again by others. Let’s learn from them!
The gov’t has to invest in infrastructure like roads and in their people with education and health care. No government ever produced goods like a company without it failing in short…
…failing in short order. That is not the job of the government. It has to manage laws, keep order and give those companies a framework in which they can be productive. Look at how many of the parastatals, corporations run by government, are failing and only able to survive by getting subsidized by government.
It’s great to have lots of resources to exploit in ones country… that is, until it isn’t anymore. Many people only seem to see what goes on with the copper industry in zambia and don’t pay attention to anything else. There are plenty of nations around the world that don’t have those resources but are much richer. If Zambia would suddenly loose the copper mining industry, it would collapse. So would Angola without their oil. Or Botswana without their diamonds, also they are…
What too you so long and who is going to lend you money to explore that venture?
So it’s so easy to industrialize; you just pass a law and presto, you are an industrial economy. If it’s that easy why hasn’t it been done all these years? What kind of fools have we been to allow so many of our people to be unemployed?
How are you going to industrialise when you are in $53bn in debt?
When it wakes up from a coma, Oh sorry from a spade of chronic losses, it will find Zambia has already been developed without its hand.
Who were you hoping to be lying on a bed in a coma so you could sneek up on them ???…..your sexual therapy is not working….
Why not publish such policy documents for all to see? After all if indeed industrialization is to actualize, it will rely on investment from the private sector. Surely its not too tall an order to set up a web site where documents of such public interest can be accessed.
They expect everything to be done for them…..what a lazy gang of thieves lungu and his people are…….we keep telling them that no foreigner is going to do the hard work of creating those industries for you…….stup.id…..id.oots….
Policy after policy yet they want to take the back seat and watch foreigners and the private sector do the work for them
……..your industrialisation policies will remain but a fleeting illusion , to be spoken of , but never attained….
You would think that this is what they would have started with lol! PF some times ni ma jokes kikikiki.
Other media are reporting that government will pass legislation to encourage those in the business of exploiting raw materials to set up manufacturing industries to add value to those raw materials. That is a whole lot different from saying govt will pass legislation to COMPEL them to add value to raw materials. I think LT is a badly edited site. Could be due to fake teachers who have bee recruited in the past in the school system. The meaning changes entirely and my view too.
Gov’t can only make it much more profitable to move manufacturing industries into the country. To compel anything often risks loosing out. Argentina once passed a law that didn’t allow mining corporations to move their money out of Argentina. They could do whatever they wanted with it there… but they couldn’t take it home. Argentinian politicians hoped to see that money invested locally. Instead, the result was that mining companies left the country and invested their money elsewhere. The local economy took a dive without the income they did get from mining, either directly by taxes on those corporations or indirectly by goods those corporations bought locally, workers that were hired locally and so on.
Ah, forgot to mention: Botswana has a corporate tax rate of 22%. Any company that manufactures goods gets a corporate tax rate of 15%. Zambia has a corporate tax rate of 35%. Except for the DRC, which also has 35%, that is more than any other nation around Zambia. Now, what advantages does Zambia have over Botswana for a manufacturing company to make up for that?