The Zambian government will concentrate its efforts this year in ensuring that economic zones in various parts of the country take off, Commerce Trade and Industry minister Felix Mutati said on Wednesday at a working breakfast for business executives in the capital Lusaka.
He said the government would ensure that the Multi Facility Economic Zones (MFEZ) were operational before the end of the year.
The MFEZ has huge tracts of land that have been opened up to foreign investors in which foreign companies go through a fast track process to set up industries in those zones and operate under a friendly tax regime.
He said three MFEZ are scheduled for opening, one of them in Chambishi near the city of Kitwe, north of the capital.
The Chambishi MFEZ was launched more than three years ago and is to be spearheaded by Chinese investments.
The other two are located in Lumwana further north of the capital and another one in Lusaka which will be run by a consortium of investors from Malaysia and Japan.
He said once fully operational, the three benefits of the three MFEZ to Zambia would be immense because of the vast investments that would be attracted to the zones.
In addition he said thousands of jobs would be created and Zambian companies would also have the same opportunities of operating in a tax friendly area and be able to export their products to China, Malaysia or Japan with ease.
Source African Press Agency
