DODIA CALLS FOR REINSTATEMENT OF THE ZAMBIA INVESTMENTS ACT

By NAMO PHIRI

ECONOMIST Yusuf Dodia says there is a need for the country to reinstate the Zambia Investments Act (ZIA) to actualize investment attraction and build local-foreign partnerships that will bring mutual benefits to both parties.

The Zambia Investment Act, whose aim was to maximize investment attraction by providing incentives for foreign investors, was replaced by the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) Act which in turn provides for these incentives.

But speaking to The Scoop, Mr. Dodia said the ZIA, once reinstated, will facilitate proper partnerships between foreign and local companies which were currently not in existence.

“The Act is a good tool that we can use to cultivate good and profitable relationships between foreign investors and our local companies because it provides incentives to the foreign investors who bring capital into the Zambian economy,” Mr. Dodia said.

He noted that this was unlike the ZDA Act which gave certain privileges such as obtaining mining licenses to Zambian companies only, adding that the challenge with such an arrangement was that the local companies only provided a license in the partnership and expected the foreign company to fund everything else and expect equal shares at the end of the day.

“This is not fair if you look at it critically because I will give you an example of the mining company; there will be a need for exploration of which the foreign investor is the one who will pay for that service and the only contribution that the local company brings in is the license,” he said.

He said such an arrangement had in most cases led to dissolved partnerships as the foreign investors felt they had invested so much for them to be subjected to an equal share.

He therefore said there was a need to establish a clear path on how local companies will partner with foreign investors in order to have a win-win situation for equity and mutual benefits.

He said there was a need to start reflecting on how to build partnerships which will successfully benefit all parties if the country was to see the actualization of local and foreign investment partnerships.