By KENNEDY MUPESENI? –
AN ENERGY expert has said Government should establish a low interest-rates biofuel fund to be accessed by Zambians for various operations in biofuel value chains.
Biofuel Association of Zambia (BAZ) chairperson Thomson Sinkala said Government should establish the facility to support the biofuel value industry in the country.
Recently Government floated tenders for the supply of biofuel energy in the country.
“This will enable Zambian companies to participate and localise most of the industry ownership,” Professor Sinkala said.
He was speaking at the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA)-Private Sector Meeting on ‘Required Investment Incentives and Tariff Structure in the energy sector’.
Prof Sinkala said that this would not only justify investment in the sector in Zambia, but would be in line with Government’s pronouncements in promoting local content thereby localising benefits in the sector.
ZDA-private sector liaison forum chairperson Geoffrey Sakulanda said the  Zambian economy had exhibited resilience against recent global and Euro-zone financial and economic shake-ups by posting an impressive Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates averaging 6.7 per cent over the period 2008 to 2013 making the country most preferred investment destination.
“The country is among the top 10 fastest growing economies, had good ranking among SADC countries in the Cost of Doing Business Survey according to the World Bank report of 2014, and Zambia performed well in terms of FDI inflows,” he said.