Govt alone can’t meet challenges of infrastructure, says Sisala

Govt alone can’t meet challenges of infrastructure, says Sisala
Written by Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 9:45:22 AM

ZESCO Limited managing director Rhodnie Sisala has said governments and public establishments cannot provide adequate capital to meet challenges of infrastructure development in their countries.

And energy deputy minister Lameck Chibombamilimo has said Zambia is well positioned geographically, economically and politically to become a hub of economic activity and enterprise in the Southern African region.

During the Public Private Partnership (PPP) seminar in Livingstone yesterday, Sisala said it had now become universally acceptable that governments and their entities alone could not garner sufficient resources to deal with challenges of infrastructure development and provision of services to their nations.

Sisala said the government needed to join hands with the private sector through PPP’s and other methods of development financing.

“As part of developing the Itezh-Tezhi and Kariba North Bank extension power projects, Zesco appointed a consortium of financial and legal advisors led by Fiedstone. Under this contract, the consortium had a responsibility to provide capacity building to Zesco on subjects ranging from project finance, financial modelling, project management and evaluation,” he said.

Sisala added that in line with changing project development techniques, it was further decided to include PPP in the training package.

And officially opening the PPP seminar, Chibombamilimo said the government had the desire to see accelerated development of infrastructure especially in the electricity sector.

“As such, there is need for us to be proactive and facilitate the development of relevant infrastructure, required to support this vast potential for economic advancement,” he said.

He said Zambia was already an active player in the electricity sector as a member of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), [which is currently being chaired by Sisala, Zesco Limited’s managing director].

“We still need energy infrastructure, roads, railways, harbours, airports and all the infrastructure relevant for business transactions and development of our nation,” he said.

He added that the PPPs were part of the solution to infrastructure problems, although they may not be the ultimate answer.

“The current financial environment may pose serious challenges more so that it has affected the strongest of economies and impacted negatively on our economies. Nevertheless, we need to maintain a positive attitude as a country,” said Chibombamilimo.