Zambia woos Chinese investors for power projects

Fri, 31 Mar 2017 12:05:07 +0000

By SHEILA SAKUPWANYA

Zhengzhou, China

ZAMBIA’S demand for electricity in 2017 is expected to exceed 2,000 MW domestically and 80,000 MW regionally, says Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) investments director Matango Matamwandi.

Mr Matamwandi said this during his presentation at the 11th China Henan Industrial and Commercial Enterprises Cross-Border Investment and Trade Fair held in Zhengzhou recently.

He said Zambia had a huge deficit in the energy sector, hence the need to engage foreign investors in the production of energy to offset that demand.

Mr Matamwandi said the country’s huge energy deficit meant that the market was readily available for the investor to flourish in the business.

“Demand for electricity in 2017 is expected to exceed 2,000 MW domestically and 80,000 MW regionally while the demand for petroleum exceeds 52 million litres per month,” he said.

“Energy sources in Zambia are electricity, petroleum, coal, biomass and renewable energy and Zambia has electricity production potential of about 1,600 MW,” he said.

He called on Chinese companies to invest in the three major energy sectors and assured them of huge market opportunities domestically and regionally.

“There are investment opportunities in solar energy projects, geo-thermal plant and biofuel energy projects and you can be assured of huge market in Zambia and the surrounding countries,’’ he said.

He said ZDA would facilitate the exportation of surplus energy to regional markets like SADC, COMESA and the EAC for the investors.

“Zambia became the 17th country to sign the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area Agreement (TFTA) in June 2016 which implies that there is an integrated market of 26 countries with a combined population of 632 million people which is 57 percent of Africa’s population for an investor in the country,” he said.

Mr Matamwandi said other market opportunities included the European Union through EBA, the United States of America through the AGOA initiative, and the Canadian, Chinese and Japanese market access initiatives.

He said investors in the country would be supported by the Government through various incentives such as the provision of an enabling environment for their businesses.

“To support investments the Government has set aside multi-facility economic zones, industrial parks and land in rural areas which investors could access and set up their businesses.

‘‘And there are also non-tax incentives such as investment guarantees and protection against state nationalization and free facilitation for application of immigration permits, secondary licenses, land acquisition and utilities in the country,’’ Mr Matamwandi added.