By REBECCA MUSHOTA –
THE Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) will boost the operations of under-utilised companies and use the profits to invest in other sectors of the economy in order to boost diversification and job creation, IDC chief executive officer Andrew Chipwende has said.

. Chipwende

Mr Chipwende said there are a number of under-utilised companies in Zambia that can be turned into profit-making ventures and in turn use the profits to reinvest in the economy and boost the much needed economic diversification.
“We have a big role to play in Government’s resolve to diversify the economy by utilising resources of under utilised companies to reinvest in the economy. This is the emphasis of the link between IDC and the Sovereign Wealth Fund 2015,” he said.
Mr Chipwende said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that the role of the IDC was to ensure that Government companies that were under the corporation were making profits and that the IDC invested in other ventures and made a profit.
These profits would be channeled to the fund known as the Sovereign Wealth Fund.
Mr Chipwende said the IDC had plans to invest in the agriculture and tourism sectors.
The other sectors are infrastructure and manufacturing.
Mr Chipwende said once the IDC invested in these sectors that diversified from the dependence on copper mining, a lot of jobs would be created.
It is envisaged that the IDC in five years would help create 550,000 jobs in the agriculture sector, 300,000 in tourism, 85,000 in infrastructure, and 89,000 in manufacturing.
Mr Chipwende said in line with what President Edgar Lungu said in his Parliament address in September, on which he emphasised on economic diversification, the IDC wanted the wealth fund to support the private sector efforts in diversifying the economy.
“The Budget address by Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda also re-emphasised our role in economic diversification and we are already working on that,” he said.
The IDC oversees 29 of 33 Government owned companies.
The corporation facilitates provision and raising of long term finance for projects and serves as an investment holding company for State-owned enterprises and new investments.