GOVERNMENT has engaged South African manufacturers of vehicles in its quest to ban engines that smoke with the aim of switching to electric cars.
Finance and National Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane has announced that some of the companies which have been engaged include Volkswagen, BMW and Toyota to begin manufacturing electric cars for Zambia.
Dr Musokotwane said this yesterday when on the panel discussion on “Harnessing natural capital to finance climate and green growth in Africa,” at the ongoing African Development Bank annual meetings in Egypt.
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“A time like this, one should not be seen just as a time of catastrophe that has been brought about by climate change. We have to embrace the opportunities that have come with it and one of those opportunities. We have, for example in Zambia, we have reached out to the companies that manufactures cars in South Africa such as Volkswagen, BMW and I think we have also spoken to Toyota to search…very soon these engines that smoke to be banned,” Dr Musokotwane said.
Dr Musokotwane pointed out that the electric engines would be beneficial to Zambia as the bulk of it was copper and its driver were minerals such as cobalt, manganese and nickel. “Would it not even make economic sense for you rather than take copper from Zambia to Germany, Japan and so forth, make a motor and then bring it back to South Africa?”
“You will be outcompeted very soon by some clever business people from other countries which are smart. So, make the motors in Zambia, then ship them into South Africa. Let us fix the railway line which become another opportunity for business, so that is just one example,” Dr Musokotwane said.
At the same discussion, Dr Musokotwane emphasised the need to capacitate human capital so that it complemented the natural resources that the African continent was boasting about to be able to be suppliers of commodities on the world market.
“With the war in Ukrain, we must be realistic and compete on the world market. You have to be competitive so there has to be a clever mix of how we attract investment to come and produce with us, get into fair arrangements so that we can supply these markets in our region and outside,” he said.
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