Wed, 28 Jun 2017 13:55:09 +0000
Allow Zambians to mine gold-FSMAZ
By MAILESI BANDA
THE government should legalize the mining of gold by small scale miners by issuing them with mining licenses, Federation of Small Scale Mining Association of Zambia (FSMAZ), general secretary Jordan Mbulo has said.
Mr. Mbulo challenged government to issue small-scale miners with licenses for gold in Vubwi, Luano and Sandwe areas and stop calling them illegal miners as they owned the land.
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, Mr Mbulo said the ministry of mines had been to the areas where gold was being mined and wondered why they kept delaying in the issuance of licences.
“Government should send licensing officers to the areas where gold is being mined and issue the villagers with licenses. As an association we have taken people from the ministry to these areas and they have confirmed that the gold is there and all that is left is for the ministry to dish out licenses,” he said
He wondered why the miners were being called illegal when they were not being issued with licenses.
Mr Mbulo explained that the government knew that there was gold in Zambia, adding that the delay in the issuance of licenses would lead to the depletion of resources due to illegal mining taking place in those areas.
He said the workers from the ministry of mines should go to those and issue the licenses and that the people were ready to pay.
“The small scale miners are ready to take up the challenge of mining only if the government issues them with the mining licenses and I have personally been to these places and they have the money ready and all they are waiting for is for the ministry of mines to go there, ” he explained.
He said the only way that Zambia could be able to benefit from those resources was through the empowerment of small-scale miners.
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China, Zambia trade hits $16.6m in 5 months
By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
TRADE volumes between Zambia and China in the first 5 months of 2017 have reached near US$16.6 million, leader of the Chinese delegation from Jilin Province, Ding Ruisheng, has announced.
A business delegation from Jilin Province of China was in Zambia to explore investment opportunities in different sectors of the economy.
Mr Ruisheng said based on the current situation, the area of cooperation needed to be expanded and the scale of trade needed to be enlarged between the two countries.
“In recent years, Jilin pays more attention to further foreign opening and trade cooperation especially to strengthen the economic and trade cooperation with Africa, Zambia is an important partner of Jilin province,” he said.
He was speaking during the launch of the Jilin Chamber of Commerce in Zambia and Jilin –Zambia Economic and Trade meeting in Lusaka on Monday.
And Political counsellor from the Chinese embassy in Zambia, Chen Shijie, said currently there were more than 200 Jilin nationals living in Zambia running 40 enterprises in different sectors of the economy.
Meanwhile, minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Margaret Mwanakatwe, said Government was interested in seeing continued growth of trade and investments between Zambia and China.
Ms Mwanakatwe said Jilin and Zambian businesses should utilise the valuable opportunity through the chamber to network and explore partnership opportunities.
She said this would further strengthen and improve the business relationship between the two countries.
“We expect that more investors from China and Jilin province will locate their bases and establish factories in Zambia and at the same time introduce Zambian products on the Chinese market,” she said.
Ms Mwanakatwe urged potential investors from China particularly Jilin to invest in Zambia and create more wealth and employment. And Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) director general, Patrick Chisanga, said China’s Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in Zambia currently stood at US$ 3 billion with investments in various sectors of the economy including manufacturing, construction and agriculture.
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CCPC recovers K550,000 for consumers
By MAILESI BANDA
THE Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has helped consumers recover about K550, 000 in the 513 consumer complaint cases reviewed in the first half of the year, board chairman Kelvin Bwalya Fube (KBF) has said.
Mr. Bwalya announced that they had managed to help consumers confiscate and destroy goods worth K290, 000 over the same period in different parts of the country.
Speaking during the half-year media briefing in Lusaka yesterday, he said under the mergers and monopolies department the commission had reviewed a total of 37 cases and approved 14 with 15 awaiting adjudication, while nine were still under assessment.
He said with the increase in foreign direct investment the commission was hopeful that more jobs would be created for Zambians and the SMEs integrated into the mainstream economy.
“The commission has intensified investigations into cartel conduct by monitoring activities in all the key sectors of the economy and there are currently investigations in connection with restrictive business practices in sectors such as road construction, tourism, aviation, insurance and public procurement, revealing that 28 cases were currently under investigation,’’ he said.
He announced that the board had fined six bakeries on the Copperbelt 5 percent of their annual turnover each for price fixing on bread in 2015.
He said it was disheartening to note that with the challenging economic environment, businesses could take advantage of consumers and deprive them of their hard-earned income.
He explained that cartels by nature restricted competition and consequently have an adverse effect on both consumers and the economy and the most affected victim was the consumer.
He said it was the responsibility of the commission to defend the rights of the victims of the cartels by fining the bakeries as their agreement to increase the wholesale price of bread was anti-competitive.
