A senior Zambian government official has stated that the degree of investment and trade that has existed between Zambia and China over the years is sufficient evidence to further deepen bilateral cooperation.
Minister of Commerce and Trade Chipoka Mulenga said the two nations’ investment and trade figures show the need of further increasing cooperation and underlined the new government’s commitment to enhancing international cooperation and foreign ties for a better-shared future.
The Zambian minister said the government expects additional Chinese investments after the meeting, which was held Sunday as part of the Second China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, which runs from September 26 to 29 in Changsha, the capital of central China’s Hunan Province.
China has remained Zambia’s greatest single investor, with more than 600 companies working in the southern African country, totaling 3.8 billion dollars in investment and 2.4 billion dollars in trade in 2020, according to him.
Zambia’s ambition of becoming a rich middle-income country by 2030, he says, would only come true with the help of countries like China, and he says the government is dedicated to establishing a favorable environment for greater Chinese investment. He said that Chinese businesses have made significant contributions to the country’s infrastructure and economic development, and that the Jiangxi Multi-Facility Commercial Zone, which is now being built, has opened up a large area for economic and trade cooperation.
“It is in this zone that we as the new government are quite hopeful that additional cooperation would grow into partnerships between Zambian and Chinese firms,” he continued.
He expressed the government’s expectation that the relationship between Zambian and Chinese businesses will result in the transfer of skills and the enhancement of the country’s raw resources’ value. He has also encouraged Chinese business delegations to visit the country to examine investment potential in a variety of areas.
Source: Xinhua News Agency