BUUMBA CHIMBULU writes
@SunZambian
ZAMBIA has exported in excess of US$170 million worth of minerals and animal hides to India, says Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) acting Director General, Matongo Matamwandi.
Mr Matamwandi said India was one of the oldest and biggest Zambia’s trading partners.
He said this was evidenced by annual Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from India into Zambia amounting to over US$118 million and US$90 million for 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Mr Matamwandi was speaking recently at a presentation on Investment Climate and Opportunities in Zambia at a Business Forum held in New Delhi, India organised by Indo-Zambia Bank.
“As relates trade, Zambia exported over USD170 million (minerals and skin hides) while imports were in excess of USD245 million (medicaments, machinery and chemicals), according to 2017 official data,” he said.
At the forum, Mr Matamwandi encouraged investors to venture into the area of agriculture.
He said Zambia’s attraction as a premier investment destination was incentivised by the abundance of land of which 58 percent, or 42 million hectares was arable land.
Out of the 42 million hectares of land, he said, only 14 percent was currently being utilized.
“Other opportunities were present in the areas of livestock, aquaculture, forestry and the Farming Blocks (100,000 hectares) that Government has set up in all the ten Provinces of Zambia,” Mr Matamwandi said.
Mr Matamwandi also urged investors to invest in the tourism sectors whose current bed-space was about 22,000, against demand of 30,000 to 40,000.
He said opportunities for investment were huge in national parks and lakes where lodges were required to boost bed-space and the Northern Tourism Circuit, which had undeveloped infrastructure.
