Konkola “’ attracting
more foreign investors
Revealing this in an interview here, allAfrica.com reports that Zambian commerce, trade and industry minister Emmanuel Chenda said that on the sidelines of the recently held UN General Assembly in New York, he had met with several potential investors, among them Chinese, who had expressed interest in setting up mineral exploration ventures in Zambia.
“Several Chinese investors have approached government proposing to set up businesses in Zambia’s mining industry, and these firms have brought forward their intentions on the premise of adding value to our country’s mineral wealth,” he said. He went on to say that the government had already assessed the credibility of these potential investors.
“Discussions between the government through the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines-Investment Holdings (ZCCM-IH) and the investors are on-going and at an advanced stage. Very soon, there will be some feedback on the matter," he said.
Chenda says the benefits of government’s intervention to remove the subsidy on fossil fuels has started paying off, as a number of other renewable forms of energy are being identified.
The minister reiterated that maintaining the subsidy on fuel could have negatively affected the country’s capacity to generate energy from other sources.
"Even countries like Norway recently implemented such policies such as the removal of the subsidy on fossil fuels, and today that country is saving 25% of its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by using other renewable forms of energy,” he revealed.
Source: allAfrica.com. For more information, click here.
