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(DAILY MAIL) Mwanawasa woos Swazi investors

Mwanawasa woos Swazi investors
From AMOS CHANDA and WALLEN SIMWAKA in Mbabane

PRESIDENT Mwanawasa has reiterated his call to investors from Swaziland to set up businesses in Zambia because the country’s constitution and subsidiary legislation protects private property and prohibits any form of nationalisation. The President said this when he addressed a business luncheon hosted by top Swazi businesses in Matsapha, the industrial hub of the kingdom.

President Mwanawasa who celebrated his 59th birthday at the lunch, decided to rename the conference room where the lunch took place from S&B to Zambia Conference Room and directed that with immediate effect, the artworks in the room be changed to reflect the Zambian environment.

He assured them that like any other international investors, their businesses in Zambia would be protected against State seizure or any form of violation because of the Zambian government’s strict adherence to respect for private property.

“The law of private ownership is there. We do not encourage nationalisation, in fact, our constitution prohibits nationalisation,” he said.

Mr Mwanawasa said his Government encouraged the Zambian private sector to interact with others across the borders because the business world had become a global village.

“This is why whenever I travel abroad I make it a point that I take time to speak to the private sector so that I can persuade them to come to Zambia and invest,” he said.

“Today is not an exception, I am inviting all of you Swazi businessmen to come to Zambia and do business.

We have special incentives tailored to suit your needs. Some of these are spelt out by statute others can be negotiated.”

He also said the MMD government had transformed the economy from a command type to a liberalised market-driven system which had delivered good results since the change of government in 1991.

The President said when the MMD took over government in 1991 it changed the economy from a top-heavy command system whose profits were largely used to pay ruling party cadres employed under the parastatal system.

“When the MMD, my party took over some 15 years ago, we decided to do away with nationalisation, except for very few strategic industries,” he said.

He defended the privatisation programme although he admitted that it caused serious socio-economic dislocations through job losses and other negative effects.

And Mr Mwanawasa urged Swazis to preserve their cherished culture by resisting foreign criticisms that it was a primitive one.

He said some people from Europe would want to persuade the Swazis to abandon their culture at the pretext that it was primitive yet they wanted to impose theirs.

“This culture that you have is yours. Keep it,” he said.

Labels: INVESTMENT, SWAZILAND

posted by MrK @ 7:25 AM