The just ended Zambia International Investment Forum (ZIIF) 2016 has been extremely successful with over 350 participants, Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) Director General Patrick Chisanga announced.
“I feel gratified that the ZIIF was very successful as it is part of our ongoing process of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and stimulating Local Direct Investment (LDI),” stated Chisanga.
“Right during the just ended forum, Sunbird Bio Energy through Richard Bennett their Chief Executive Officer has finally confirmed investing USD200m in an ethanol plant in Kasama,” the Director General revealed.
It is estimated that over 20,000 families are going to benefit from the ethanol project by cultivating cassava which will be the raw material for the production of ethanol with a ready market.
“ZIIF was meant to illuminate to investors and potential investors the numerous available investment opportunities apart from the traditional copper in line with government’s deliberate stance to diversify the economy from over dependency on copper. For example, government has set aside 1m ha of land divided into 100 ha per province,” Chisanga explained.
One good example of that is the Luswishi soya beans farm block in the Copperbelt which is run by Global Plantations Limited and which has contributed positively to agricultural development in Lufwanyama district.
Chisanga assured that there will be a lot of follow up action on all the investment leads that came out of the 2016 forum.
“By the time we host ZIIF 2017, most of the investors who attended the just ended forum must have already invested in our economy,” Chisanga concluded.
