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Finance and National Planning Minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane, says government is currently scouting for partners to invest in a fuel pipeline that will efficiently import the commodity into Zambia from Tanzania.
Musokotwane said this was in a quest to support production of the ambitious three million tonnes of copper in the next 10 years, which required a lot of fuel.
The Minister lobbied for investment partners at the Foreign Investment Network Forum / Forbes Forum, in the United Kingdom on Tuesday.
Government had set an ambitious plan to expand copper production to three million tonnes annually in the next 10 years from the current production of around 830,000 metric tonnes.
Musokotwane, however, said this ambitious plan required a lot of fuel and disclosed that this needed investments as the state pipeline was congested.
“Being landlocked, our challenge is fuel importation from the coast line and not just for ourselves, Zambia, but also for our colleagues in Democratic Republic of Congo, because our copper mining area is expanding Zambia in addition to producing three million tonnes in the next 10 years, this requires a lot of fuel.
“So how do we bring the fuel inland efficiently? We have a state pipeline but it is not big enough, it is congested now so we are looking for investments into pipeline from Dar-es-salaam to Zambia, Congo DRC. Once again if there are people who are interested in the pipeline, please come and see me,” he said.
Musokotwane also indicated that government was looking for partners in the oil and gas exploration space.
“Zambia is endowered from copper mining and not from gas and oil, but right now there are companies that are drilling for oil and gas and they are looking for partners. So, if you are interested, please you can speak to me later on then I will make the connections,” he stated.
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