. CHENDA

By JAMES KUNDA –
Government will use the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to pump massive investments in areas that have been deemed risky  by both local and foreign investors, Commerce, Trade and Industry Minister Emmanuel Chenda has said.
Mr Chenda said the Government strategy is to enhance value addition and job creation to skilled and semi-skilled Zambians.
Government will  ensure that it takes industrial development to sub serviced areas previously described by investors as risky and will invest heavily especially in value addition.
Mr Chenda  said in an interview in Lusaka that, IDC would operate on profitable lines to make it essential to the creation of sustainable wealth and jobs for Zambians.
He said  unlike the defunct Industrial Development Corporation (INDECO), IDC would be utilised as a vehicle to promote value addition in subserviced areas.
“Government will primarily invest in those sectors that  the private sector and other investors  have deemed risky so that it  promotes value addition and participate fully on the local market.
“I must also stress that the concept behind this move is to use the IDC as a vehicle that will drive industrialisation and not nationalisation like INDECO did,” Mr Chenda added.
The concept behind Government creating the IDC is not to  nationalise companies but  for value addition through industrialisation.
The concept behind Government creating the IDC is not to  nationalise companies but  for value addition through industrialisation.
Indeco was a conglomerate under which all the parastatals were established.
Government formulated the IDC with a focus on strategic economic growth points which when exploited,  would generate supplementary income for the national treasury.
The IDC has since been incorporated under the Companies Act following the allocation of K20 million towards its implementation.
Government is also in the process of creating of a Sovereign Fund in which 75 per cent of dividends from the IDC and its subsidiaries would be deposited.