FOREIGN Affairs Minister, Kabinga Pande says Zambia will take full advantage of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit (CHOGM), which officially opens tomorrow in the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago, to expose the country's investment opportunities to the outside world.

Speaking to the Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) in the island's capital, Port of Spain, Mr Pande said Vice-President, George Kunda would present a paper in which he would highlight the business opportunities available in Zambia.

Mr Pande said a lot of people in the world were not aware of what was obtaining in Zambia, hence the need to vigorously sell the country to the outside world.

He said Zambia's agenda at the summit was not merely to attend the various meetings that would take place but to also lobby investors from other countries to consider investing their money in Zambia's tourism, agriculture and mining sectors and various other economic ventures.

"We will vigorously market Zambia so that we can attract as many investors as possible to come and invest in our country and create employment," he said.

Mr Pande said already, a good number of countries attending the CHOGM had approached him with a view to holding bilateral meetings at which a number of economic and social issues would be discussed.

Mr Pande said Climate Change would be one of the main issues to be discussed during the summit because it concerned every nation, whether poor or rich, big or small and, therefore, required urgent solutions.

He said it was for this reason that the Zambian Government had come up with a national adaptation programme to focus on areas that were most vulnerable to climate change such as agriculture, wild life, human life, water and energy, among others.

Mr Pande said among the issues to be tabled during the summit was the need for the reform of the Breton Wood Financial Institutions, which he said had not changed since the Second World War, to fit the needs of the 21st century.

He said this had resulted into least developed countries such as Zambia getting a raw deal in terms of loans owing to unfavourable conditionalities attached when a country applies for such loans.

On the membership of the Commonwealth, the Foreign Affairs minister said the 'Club' had now relaxed its rules for joining which required that for a country to be admitted to the association, it had to be a former British colony, but this was no longer the case.

He said admission to the Commonwealth was now open to other countries that wished to join, adding that one such countries was Rwanda whose application to join the Commonwealth would be discussed during this week's Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit being held in Trinidad and Tobago.

Mr Pande, however, said following the 2007 Kampala decision, a four-step process for dealing with expressions of interest by aspiring members was agreed upon by Commonwealth member states.

The process comprises an informal assessment undertaken by the secretary-general; consultation by the secretary-general with member states; an invitation to the interested country to make a formal application and a formal application presenting evidence of the functioning of democratic processes and popular support in that country for joining the Commonwealth.