EAST PLANS INVESTMENT EXPO 2018

Sat, 23 Sep 2017 09:40:57 +0000

By Mailesi Banda

EASTERN Province has become the first province to plan a provincial expo after the successful hosting of the Luapula expo in July.

Provincial minister Makebi Zulu, said the province would host the expo to attract investment to the region next year.

Mr Zulu said they had begun preparations for the expo by looking at the potential investment areas in all the ten districts in the province.

“We will be having a provincial expo for the Eastern Province next year and we are looking at the potential for investment in all the ten districts. Everyone is going into the province for gold now but the province has vast economic potential that needs to be exposed for investment,” Mr Zulu said.

He also said the province had vast potential in the agriculture sector, adding that while they produced 500 metric tonnes of maize in the 2015/2016 farming season they had almost doubled  the production in the 2016/2017 farming season by producing 800 metric tonnes.

Mr Zulu explained that the province had 2 million hectares of arable land which could be used for agriculture and about 1.1million hectares of land that could be used for livestock production, adding that this was an open area for investment.

“We want the Eastern Province to become the hub of agro processing in Zambia and the African region.’ said Mr Zulu

He commended the President on his pronouncements of having an agro processing plant in the province, adding that over the years farmers had seen mangoes going to waste due to the lack of processing equipment.

Mr Zulu explained that the coming in of the mango processing plant would improve the trade profile of the province as the produce would even be exported.  He explained that the plant would enable the province preserve, process and package the mangoes.

He noted that Government was committed to ensuring that resources were put to use and avoid wastage of materials that could contribute to economic growth.