(TIMES) Southern Africa must use local resources to develop — envoy

Southern Africa must use local resources to develop — envoy
By Business Reporter

THE Southern African region must use local resources to develop instead of relying on help from international financial institutions, South African High Commissioner to Zambia, Moses Chikane has said. Mr Chikane said in Lusaka that the countries in the region must harmonise the resources in their economies to enhance trade and investment among themselves.

Citing the economic turmoil that Greece was currently going through and the financial help that country would receive to re-organise her economy, the high commissioner said there was no need for countries in the region to look to international aid because there was money and investments that could be harnessed.

The envoy was launching the new Nandos Zambia and the first restaurant under the brand at Tukunka Mall in Kabulonga on Wednesday evening. Nandos operated in Zambia before, but the new company has come under a new partnership between the South African global brand and Zambia’s Fortune Chickens Ltd.

“We should be able to use our common products in order to create wealth in the region, and help to improve the quality of life.

This region can be better. We don’t want to go the way other people have gone. We can be able to create a different world if we can be able to use our money to develop the region,” he said.

Mr Chikane said Zambia stood to gain more from investments from South Africa because a number of investors from that country were increasingly interested in setting up operations.

Since the end of the apartheid era in 1994, there was anticipation of increased trade and investments between South Africa and Zambia because of shared history.

“This is the beginning of many relationships between our people, and this is what all of us have been waiting for since 1994.

“We think the screws are beginning to open that South African people are now coming here to invest in the Zambian economy that contributed so much to our liberation,” he said.

When South African President Jacob Zuma was in Zambia last year he had directed him to ensure that he promotes more intake of Zambian products by South African companies.

He was asked to market the rich tourism and mining resources in areas such as Luapula and the Copperbelt provinces, as well as many agricultural products.

Visiting Nandos Worldwide licensing senior brand manager Guy Carter said the firm was coming back to Zambia in a big way, adding that it was set to open six stores in the next five years in Lusaka alone.

Mr Carter said the substantial investment that Nandos was making in Zambia was testimony to the confidence the investors had in the economy.

And Fortune Chickens Ltd managing director Katen Parmar said so far 26 Zambians had been employed at the Kabulonga restaurant, six of whom were sent to South Africa for orientation.