PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema says the Zambezi Free Economic Zone in Kazungula District, Southern Province will create jobs once completed.
Mr Hichilema disclosed that the economic benefits that will stem from the Zambezi Free zone area will not benefit the people in the area alone but will spread to the whole country.
The President thanked Chiefs Sekute and Mukuni on whose land the Free Zone area will be set up and further called on investors to explore other parts of the country and set up investments.
The President has however advised investors to ensure that the local people are involved and allowed to benefit from the investment.
Mr Hichilema warned that government will not allow investors who fail to accord opportunities to locals to participate in the development agenda.
“More local people must benefit from this investment, issues of saying local people cannot be employed because they do not have the skills will not be accepted. This place will have the best of universities and skills development centres so the locals will be trained,” he emphasized.
The President was speaking in Kazungula when he officiated at the ground-breaking ceremony for the Zambezi Free Zone area in Sekute Chiefdom on Saturday.
“As government we are committed to improving the livelihoods of our people by providing opportunities for jobs and this economic free zone we are establishing today is one such initiative which we want rolled out to the rest of the country,” he said.
ZANIS reports that the establishment of the free zone in the Sekute area is one of the initiatives that government is rolling out throughout the country.
He stressed that the initiative should be supported because through its benefits will spill over to payment of things such as free education, Constituency Development Funds and other projects.
“The Zambezi free economic zone concept is a unique one as funds from the zone will straight away be channeled into the treasury without the government having spent any resources on its development,” he emphasized.
Mr Hichilema stressed that without local, domestic and regional investment it is impossible to support various public projects.
And Chief Sekute said during the ground-breaking ceremony that the free zone area has a unique concept which he copied from Dubai and is expected to transform the economic status of the District.
Chief Sekute said the free zone area has potential to contribute to the country’s Gross Domestic Product if well harnessed.
The Chief added that people in the district are ready to create Kazungula into a global hub for development further assuring that the projects have a collective effort by the people.
“The people in the chiefdom are determined to support the project as they position it to create Kazungula into a global hub for development in the country,” he said.
And Buks Haulage Limited Chairman Buks Jansen Van Rensburg explained that the Zambezi Area free zone will consist of Sekute and Mukuni free zones and has the objective of bringing both local and foreign investors.
He added that consultations have already been done where investors have been engaged to bring money into the country through various investments.
Mr. Rensburg also commended the peace and conducive atmosphere that exists in the country where investors can settle freely.
He explained that the two chiefdoms will hold 84 percent shareholding into the entire investment.
Meanwhile, Southern Province Minister Credo Nanjuwa said the expected investment into Sekute chiefdom will add to the growth of the economy in the province.
Mr Nanjuwa expressed the Province’s commitment to support investors that step into the area to set up investments.
