International community urged to Invest in COMESA
International community urged to Invest in COMESABy ANGELA CHISHIMBA
VICE-PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has challenged the international community to invest in infrastructure in the COMESA because it is a secure investment destination. He said this in a speech read on his behalf by Minister of Defence, George Mpombo, who is acting as Vice-President.
He was speaking during the opening of a meeting of ministers responsible for infrastructure in COMESA. "I would like to invite the international community to invest in infrastructure in our region as I believe it has good returns and is now a secure investment destination,” he said.
“Investors will take advantage of the larger integrated market with better infrastructure being provided."
He said the success of COMESA's integration programme would depend significantly on the availability of adequate transport, communications networks and energy resources. "Today, we have big challenges in the transport, communications and energy sectors which we need to address collectively," he said.
Mr Banda said the cost of transport in COMESA, especially in landlocked countries, was comparatively high, thereby increasing the cost of production and distribution of goods and services.
He said there was need to develop transport infrastructure systems and address the non-physical constraints, which caused delays in the movement of cargo and people.
Mr Banda also said the region was facing great challenges in energy supply. Demand for power in many countries outstripped the supply by large margins.
He said while demand for power had been rising due to industrial and population growth, the generation capacity had not increased much in the last decade due to lack of investment in the sector.
Mr Banda said power distribution losses had continued to rise leading to reduced power delivery from existing installed capacity.
"I am aware of the many power generation and transmission projects now proposed to provide additional power to meet the needs of the region.
I would urge you, as ministers responsible, to put great efforts to fast track the development of these projects by building consensus on priorities which will enable the full realisation of the regional needs at minimum costs," he said.
Mr Banda also said due to lack of effective interconnectivity, costs of communication regionally remained the highest in the world.
This denied the region the opportunity to participate meaningfully in the information age.
"We should also encourage private/public partnerships where the private sector invests and operates facilities on concession basis but subject to agreed performance targets," he said.
And COMESA secretary-general, Erastus Mwencha said about US$120 million was spent per annum on transiting through Europe and North America in order to communicate regionally.
Mr Mwencha also said a feasibility study for the Shire-Zambezi Waterways would be carried out through COMESA using funds from the European Union.
And Malawian Minister of Transport and Public Works, Henry Mussa, said in an interview that ministers of transport from Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique would sign an agreement on April 25,2007, to commence the Shire Waterways project.
Mr Mussa said the project would integrate Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zimbambwe and Tanzania.
Labels: COMESA, RUPIAH BANDA
posted by MrK @ 4:47 AM
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