20 October 2008
ACTING President, Rupiah Banda, has implored Brazilian investors to invest in Zambia saying Brazil is an important country to the African continent.
Mr Banda said that Brazil had many Africans who should consider coming back to the continent and invest. He said that the investors should particularly invest in Zambia.
He said this in Lusaka at the Government House yesterday when Brazilian minister for external relations, Celso Luiz Nunes Amorim, paid a courtesy call on him.
Mr Banda said that Brazil was second to Nigeria in terms of the high number of Africans in a particular country.
He added that Zambia was a favourable investment destination as the leadership had all the time strived to ensure that peace and stability prevailed in the nation.
"We are going to the elections but we are still a peaceful country. Brazil is special to Africa because of the largest number of Africans, the largest number of Africans is in Brazil and they should come and invest in Zambia and Africa," Mr Banda said.
And Mr Amorim said that Brazilian economy had grown tremendously and would, therefore, want to extend their expansion to Zambia. He said that through the South-to-South trade Brazil was cooperating with Zambia.
He added that the regional economic body for South America was ready to cooperate with the South African Development Community (SADC).
He also commended the Zambian political stakeholders for maintaining peace even with the diverse political ideologies.
Earlier, Mr Amorim met his Zambian counterpart, Kabinga Pande, who said that developing countries should stop looking for assistance from the developed world but learn to solve their own problems.
Mr Pande said that whenever a developing country looked for assistance from a developed country, several benchmarks were attached to the aid rendered.
He, therefore, said that it was imperative that Brazilian investors come to invest in Zambia as that country was also a developing nation as opposed to luring investors from developed world.
Mr Pande said that Zambia had vast agriculture potential, which could be exploited by investors from Brazil.
The Brazilian minister also met first Republican President, Kenneth Kaunda and was also scheduled to meet opposition Patriotic Front (PF) leader, Michael Sata, his Heritage Party (HP) counterpart, Godfrey Miyanda and United Party for National Development (UPND) president, Hakainde Hichilema.
And speaking at a Press briefing later in the day, Mr Amorim said his country had made strives in the production of bio-fuels and would as much as possible help investors from his country to come in Zambia.
Like Zambia, he said that Brazil was a developing country but because of prudent leadership by the Government, the nation had made economic achievements saying it was possible to for Zambia to move at the same wavelength with his country.
He also said that Brazil and Zambia were collaborating in fighting the scourge of AIDS.
Mr Amorim said he was also impressed that a Brazilian mining firm was investing in Zambia.
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