PRESIDENT Banda has commended the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) for winning the prestigious 2011 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Investment Promotion award.
“I commend the Director-General Andrew Chipwende and his team for all they are doing for Zambia. The ZDA has done an excellent job and this is an important endorsement of the work my government has been doing to attract investment into Zambia. It is very encouraging to receive the recognition of this prestigious award,” Mr Banda said in Lusaka yesterday.
He said this in a statement released by State House special assistant for press and public relations Dickson Jere last evening.
The focus of this year’s awards was the contribution that investment promotion agencies can make to infrastructure development through the attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI).
The ZDA received the accolade for its work with different Government entities in the promotion of public-private partnerships and its role in attracting investment for a renewable energy infrastructure project.
Since Mr Banda took office in 2008, he has led initiatives that have dramatically boosted infrastructure investments in Zambia, resulting in 17 new bridges being built and over 4,000 kilometres of roads being repaired.
In 2010, FDI into Zambia was US$2 billion with substantial inflows not only concentrated in the mining industry but into manufacturing and other key areas of the economy.
The ZDA joined agencies from the Dominican Republic and Peru in receiving three equal awards presented by UNCTAD secretary-general Supachai Panitchpakdi and International Trade Centre executive director Patricia Francis.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
Well done ZDA and Zambia and keep up the good work. We want to see more jobs for our yong population though.
Dear old Zambia, very good at making world class billionaires out of our copper. First it was Rhodes in pre-colonial times, then came Anglo in colonial and independent Zambia and now Glencore. When are we going to make our first Zambian billionaire from this God given commodity?
RB NAFUTI NAFUTI…………………………………..
Well done ZDA team.
THE OCCASION AND PLATFORM WAS FOR MISA. SO FR.BWALYA RED-CARDED MISA DIRECTORS/EXECUTIVES.
UN-PRIESTLY CONDUCT. ZAMBIANS LET US BE CAREFUL WITH FANATISM.THIS IS WHAT LEADS TO IMPOSSIBLE TOLERANCE AND IRREVERSIBLE HATE.