President Mwanawasa has urged investors in the country to attend to concerns raised by local people.
And Mr Mwanawasa has urged Zambia Sugar Plc to ensure that Zambians are given a top priority in the award of contracts by the company.
Speaking when he officially launched the Nakambala expansion project held at
Nakambala Estate in Mazabuka today, Mr Mwanawasa said there was need for investors to pay attention to concerns raised by the local people.
He, however, said the local people should also pay attention to concerns raised by
investors in order to reach a mutual understanding.
Mr Mwanawasa said there was need for investors to protect the interests of Zambians.
He told Zambia Sugar company management that the award of contracts in areas like
transportation must continue to support Zambians because government had passed a law on the Citizenship Economic Empowernnment of local people.
Mr Mwanawasa called on the Sugar company to work hard and assist local people to
take advantage of the business opportunities that the company will present.
He also challenged local businessmen to position themselves so that they could
benefit from the project.
He said Zambia Sugar had made impressive strides in increasing the production of
sugar adding that it was pleasing to note that the programme was expanding further
thereby making the company one of the largest sugar producing companies in Africa.
He urged management at Nakambala to also expand westwards in order to benefit most
of the small scale farmers.
Mr Mwanawasa said the annual production of sugar at Nakambala will now stand at
440,000 metric tonnes annually which will put Zambia in the league of major
producers of sugar in Africa.
He said the expansion of the sugar project would diversify the country’s exports
other than just copper.
Mr Mwanawasa said the fact that sugar produced at Nakambala would be exported to the European Union meant that the incomes of the outgrower farmers would also increase.
And speaking earlier, Zambia Sugar Plc chairman, Paul De Robillard, said the
Nakambala Expansion Project was approved at a capital cost of K840 billion.
He said the project was based on a 50 percent increase in the cane crushing capacity
of the factory.
Mr Robillard said the anticipated growth in production would come from a combination
of Zambia Sugar’s own estate operations, commercial outgrowers and small schemes
totalling about 10, 500 hectares.
He said as a result of the expansion, sugar production was expected to increase from
200,000 tonnes to 440,000 tonnes of sugar per annum.
Mr Robillard observed that Zambia’s proximity to large deficit regional sugar
markets in Sub-Saharan Africa provided a high potential outlet for the company’s
increased copper production.
He said molasses production would increase to 95,000 tonnes by the end of the
project adding that feasibility studies would be undertaken to investigate the
production of alcohol for the national fuel pool.
He said it was envisaged that if viable, an ethanol plant would be able to supply
approximately 10 per cent of the country’s fuel requirements.
Mr Robillard reiterated his commitment to working with traditional leaders and the
civic authorities in the development of the district.
At the same meeting Southern province minister, Joseph Mulyata, disclosed that
Mazabuka this year produced a total of 312,000 x 50 kilogram bags of maize, as
opposed to 205,840 bags produced last year.
He said government had already paid a total of K6.1 billion to farmers.
And Mr Mulyata noted that the livestock ban that has been lifted has cheered farmers
but emphasised that animals should not be moved outside the province.
He said the only areas where the ban was still in effect was Livingstone and Kazungula.
