Minister Mulenga calls for improved inter-African trade to check capital flight out of continent

Africa can only develop if the countries in the continent learn to conduct business with each other, says Commerce and Trade and Industry Minister Chipoka Mulenga.

Mulenga said Africa had always conducted business with the rest of the world except with itself, exporting capital flight out of the region.

He said this when he led a delegation from Namibia who toured the Lusaka South Multi-facility Economic Zone (LS MFEZ) on Wednesday.

The delegation from Namibia was led by Minister of Industrialisation and Trade Lucia Lipumbu.

This was in respect to the decision taken between President Hakainde Hichilema and he’s counterpart Hage Gottfried Geingob aimed at strengthening the country’s bilateral engagement through trade.

Mulenga regretted that Africa had failed as a continent in inviting each other to invest in each other’s environment.

He said Zambia was much open for Namibia to set up its investment in the country.

“When Namibia invests in Zambia and Zambia invests in Namibia, there will be no capital flight out of the region and shared amongst ourselves,” Mulenga said.

He also said Zambia had cut off a lot of taxes as they were not what developed the country but the jobs that would be created out of Industry which in turn created businesses.

And Namibian Industrialisation and Trade Minister, Lucia Iipumbu said her delegation was pleased to come and learn what Zambia was doing with its Multi-facility Economic Zones.

Iipumbu said creating an enabling environment for private sector investment that the Zambian government implemented through various incentives was worth emulating.

“What Zambia is doing to encourage value addition before exporting is a step in the right direction than exporting raw materials,” she said.

Meanwhile, LSMFEZ Managing Director Kennedy Mwila, said the Zone had about 100 investors who were contributing to over US$1.5 billion worth of investment.

He said the 100 investors had created about 30, 000 direct jobs and more indirect jobs through the value chain.

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