ON December 31, 2013, President Michael Sata announced resolutions that his Government had made to drive Zambia’s economy forward as the country celebrates her maiden jubilee of independence in 2014.

In his New Year message to the nation, Mr Sata re-affirmed that job creation would be prominent on the Government to-do list in 2014.

Government’s agenda to create more jobs for Zambians in 2014 would be spear-headed by reviving the once mighty but now defunct Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).

IDC was established in 1968 as a conglomerate to accommodate all parastatals controlled by the United National Independence Party (UNIP) Government in the first and second republic.

Then Republican president Kenneth Kaunda set-up INDECO with the aim of having all parastatals under one multinational firm.

This umbrella body of all parastatals was responsible for the operations of many firms such as Kawambwa Tea Company (KTC) estate in Luapula, Refined Oil Products (ROP) in Ndola and Zambia Mulungushi Textiles (ZMT) in Kabwe.

Others were Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ) in Kafue, Mununshi Banana Scheme in Mwense and Livingstone Motor Assembly in Southern Province.

A few others were Mwinilunga Pineapple Canning Factory in North Western Province, Luangwa Bicycles in Chipata, Dunlop Limited in Ndola and the United Bus Services (UBZ), etc.

Thousands of people were employed across IDCs subsidiaries as its operations were decentralised among the nine provinces of Zambia at that time.

Of course Zambia now has ten provinces after the separation of Muchinga from Northern Province.

But as everything has its advantages and disadvantages; IDC had its own fair share of problems.

Certain companies were loss making entities and funds had to be channelled from other profit making firms to help sustain those that were struggling.

E.g; if ROP was unable to meet the remuneration for its employees in one month due to losses, money would be sourced from the UBZ coffers to help ROP meet its wage obligations.

This was clearly unsustainable as Government unable to maintain a fair return on the investments that it had invested to run these companies simultaneously.

So when the Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD) took office in 1991, then President Fredrick Chiluba dissolved IDC and liberalised the Zambian economy.

All the companies under IDC were privatised; unfortunately others could only sustain operations for a few years and later closed down.

At the closure of these once mighty companies, many people lost their jobs though others were lucky to find employment elsewhere.

For others it has been a sad tale; some people were never paid off their terminal benefits due to lack of finances, in-turn, all they have heard is one promise after the other; assurance upon assurance.

KTC was sold to Gombe Holdings of Zimbabwe, while Government entered a joint venture with China to run ZMT which now became Zambia China Mulungushi Textiles (ZCMT).

Mununshi Banana Scheme was bought off by Ndola business executive Terence Findlay.

Sadly other companies like Livingstone Motor Assembly, UBZ and ROP have never been revived since closure.

It is poignant that despite foreign colossal investment, investors who took over KTC, ZCMT and Mununshi Banana Scheme have all failed to sustain operations as three companies.

The proprietor of Gombe Holdings disappeared in thin air leaving KTC owing colossal sums of debt in unpaid wages and utility bills.

Zambia is however currently in talks with China over the possibility of reviving ZCMT while Mr Findlay has pledged to revive Mununshi Banana Scheme soon.

During campaigns leading to the general elections in 2011, the then opposition Patriotic Front (PF), pledged to revive most of the companies that were liquidated after the demise of IDC.

Duly, the PF was ushered into Government on September 23, 2011carrying the hopes of 13million Zambians wishing to once again ride on a UBZ bus.

As per their promises on the political campaign platform, the PF Government undertook a study to ascertain the viability of companies like Mansa Batteries when revived.

The study has been complete and Government has taken prior steps such as the improvement of electricity generation and distribution infrastructure to carter for these factories once on-stream.

This is clearly an art of foresight as companies like KTC are energy intensive and need a lot of electricity to sustain their operations.

Government has already revived the NCZ with a capital injection of K42million, towards the rehabilitation of the Kobe Ammonium nitrate plant for production of fertiliser and explosives.

Some money was allocated towards making part payment to retired NCZ employees of the firm which was dormant for more than a decade.

Since its revival, NCZ has created over 1,000 new jobs for the local people in Kafue and the plant has produced over 70,000 tonnes of basal dressing fertiliser and over 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser.

Clearly, if Government has revived NCZ single handily into a viable entity, re-establishing IDC is a well-intended move as it could be the answer to kick-starting the country’s manufacturing industry.

Reviving IDC will among other things support value addition to Zambia’s agriculture produce such as tea, bananas and cotton.

It will also improve the country’s export industry which performed feebly in 2013 where Zambia failed to sell a single product to the United States (US) market under the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Government however needs to outline how it intends to re-establish INDECO which has been dormant for over the last two decades.

The State should provide a blue-print of how it intends to revive the conglomerate into a profit making entity to maintain sovereign wealth.

Government also must state how the re-establishment of IDC would be financed.

The funding required to make this operation successful is colossal and the re-establishment of IDC was not even catered for in the 2014 National Budget.

Will Government start withdrawing money from other sectors to finance the creation of IDC?

Reviving an entity of this nature requires careful planning to make it viable and hopefully Government has thought this through.

Cabinet has already given approval to its formation and IDC will be officially launched soon.

President Michael Sata is expected to chair the board of directors of IDC and having the Head of State at the helm, will definitely yield effective results.

For now; it’s all fingers crossed as Zambia awaits the renaissance of IDC.

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