By John Chola
GOVERNMENT says it has successfully put in place all fundamentals for any business to thrive in North-Western Province of the country and local and foreign investors have been challenged to take advantage of the untapped investment potential in the region.
North-Western Province Minister, Nathaniel Mubukwanu says there is no excuse for those that are into business for failing to invest in the province’s furthest districts like Zambezi, Ikeleng’e or Chavuma because all necessary incentives conducive for all definition of investment were now in place.
Mr Mubukwanu, who was speaking on Saturday evening when he graced the 2019 North-Western Chamber of Commerce Captains of the industry gala dinner awards ceremony held at Kansanshi hotel in Solwezi, explained that through the commitment of President Edgar Lungu Government has put in place relevant fundamentals to attract real investment to area and make it ready to accommodate investors without much restrictions.
“On our part as Government, our responsibility and duty, which President Lungu always talks about, is to ensure that we put all the fundamentals in place for the business community to thrive. For example, when I served in the North-Western Province earlier in 2013 to 2015, we had fewer districts that were connected to the national grid, but as we speak to you today, we have endevoured so hard to ensure that all the 11 districts of the province are connected to the electricity power grid,” Mr Mubukwanu said.
He said that in addition, Government had also gone further to make sure that the entire province was now connected to the mobile telecommunications network.
Mr Mubukwanu has called on the business community and relevant stakeholders in the country to stop the tendency of merely holding workshops, meetings, carrying out trade missions to foreign countries but should immediately start actualising their benefits into tangible realities for Zambia’s economic growth.
“For us as Government, we will continue doing that which we have to do, but the business community will have to come in and claim their rightful role. I urge the chamber and the entire business community that, let us move away from this business of talking all the time, let us make our hands dirty, let us remove our jackets, ladies let us remove our high heeled shoes, let us fold our sleeves and get ready because nobody will do this if we don’t do it ourselves” Mr Mubukwanu said.
The minister told the business community that the market in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo which border North-Western Province has been yawning and that the Zambian business community has for many years failed to take full advantage of the situation.
“I know some of you have been complaining that you can’t even access Kipushi in the DRC but the good news is that the contractor is now on site so as soon as the rains subside, they should be able to commence the construction of the Solwezi-Kipush road that will make it easier to access the market,” Mr Mubukwanu announced.
He also announced that his provincial administration will have a policy in place to ensure that the 20 percent subcontracts allocated for local contractors will be managed through the North-Western Chamber of Commerce as a way of supporting the local entrepreneurs to benefit from the opportunity that Government is putting forward.
North-Western Chamber of Commerce President Mukumbi Kafuta said the purpose of the awards was to reward and celebrate well deserving companies and individuals for their accomplishments in the year.
Mr Kafuta commended Government for continuing to listen to the concerns of the business community on various policy issues that have potential to impact either negatively or positively on the industry.
Companies, entrepreneurs and individuals were awarded in various categories.
“…we have endevoured so hard to ensure that all the 11 districts of the province are connected to the electricity power grid,” Mr Mubukwanu said.
The irony is, you are providing comforts for foringners who are mostly fake investors to come and exploit Zambians ,while the owners of the country are being overlooked.
GRZ has not put enough effort in helping establish Zambian owned factories. They are too preoccupied in trying to invite overseas investors who they hope will do all the work of GRZ providing training and employment
Let’s develop this thing. Boys will always be boys.
African style of leadership forcing people to invest, when you haven’t even finished the road. Business is not only about infrastructures but the cost of doing business, the 20 percent is a joke no one knows when those contracts are announced because you same politicians and cadres fight for them leaving out the common man. How do you even compete with the deep pocket Chinese