ZDA approves 73 investment licences worth K3.7 trillion
ZDA approves 73 investment licences worth K3.7 trillionBy Andrew Chiwenda
Thursday November 01, 2007 [03:01]
Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) has approved and processed 73 investment licences with a total pledge amounting to US $995 million (approximately K3.7 trillion) from January to October this year.
ZDA acting director Glyne Michelo said that since January this year, there has been an increase in infrastructure investments with total pledged employment of about 10,000 jobs in different sectors namely construction, services, information and communication technology, education, tourism and small-scale mining amongst others.
Michelo said to access ZDA investment licences, investors should have not less than US $500,000 as investment capital in the priority sectors.
Michelo further said the agency gives incentives to investors who wanted to invest in 12 priority sectors among them hydro electricity, agro processing, pharmaceuticals, and copper processing.
According to the ZDA Act, investors that invest in the priority sectors will initially be exempted from paying corporate tax for a period of five years.
From 6 to 8 years, the corporate tax would only be on 50 per cent of the profit margin and after 9 years, the tax would be on 75 per cent of the profit.
In addition, investors will also be exempted from paying dividends as well as customs duty when they bring in equipment while there would be no duty on specialised motor vehicles for a period of 5 years.
The ZDA Act was ratified last year while the operations started in January this year. ZDA is an amalgamation of the Zambia Privatisation Agency, Export Board of Zambia, Zambia Investment Centre, Zambia Export Processing Zones Authority and the Small Enterprises Development Board.
Michelo emphasised that the aim of ZDA was to create a one-stop facility for finished goods for both local and international market such that there would be job creation because most investors would be dealing in finished products as opposed to just raw materials.
Michelo further said the main component of the pledged investments was the establishment of four multi-facility economic zone in four different areas. He said the major investment being done was by China Non-ferrous Metals Corporation under the auspices of Chambishi Metals in Chambishi. He said Ndola would have two separate multi facility economic zones while one would be established in Lusaka.
“In Lusaka alone, we will have a multi facility economic zone with an investment of US $100 million and two others will be established in Ndola with a total of 50 to 60 companies on each zone. These facilities will include copper processing, garments production, food processing and pharmaceuticals,” he said.
He said Chinese investors would build these zones in five African countries starting with Zambia.
And Michelo said there was a monitoring and compliance unit that monitored all the projects applied by foreign investors to ensure they did what they undertook to do.
Labels: INVESTMENT LICENSES, ZDA
posted by MrK @ 5:31 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home