ZAMBIA NOVEMBER ECONOMIC NEWS ROUNDUP

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 LUSAKA 001627 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EINV EAIR PGOV ZA SUBJECT: ZAMBIA NOVEMBER ECONOMIC NEWS ROUNDUP ¶1. SUMMARY OF TOPICS -- China forgives Zambian debt, signs smelter deal -- Konkola Copper Mine spill pollutes Kafue River -- Two-thirds of Zambians lack access to financial services -- Time to register a company with PACRO down to one day -- Chilanga Cement launches construction of new plant ¶2. China forgives Zambian debt, signs smelter deal President Mwanawasa announced on November 7 during a visit to Beijing for the Sino-African Summit that the Chinese government had written off USD 211 million of debt owed by the Zambian government, including debt that Zambia incurred in the 1970s to build the TAZARA railway line. On the margins of the Sino-African Summit in early November, Zambia and China signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of a copper smelter by Chambishi Non-Ferrous Company, with a reported investment of USD 200 million. Source: Zambia Daily Mail, November 9, 2006 ¶3. Konkola Copper Mine spill pollutes Kafue River Zambia's largest copper mine, Konkola Copper Mine, owned by UK-Indian company Vedanta Plc, spilled highly acidic pollutants into the Kafue River in Chingola in North-Western Province after a pipe at a leaching plant burst on November 6. Residents who used the polluted water suffered from diarrhea, rashes and other ailments. Local water companies turned off water as soon as the contaminants were detected, causing further hardship to the affected area for several days. Mines and Mineral Development Minister Kalombo Mwansa visited the affected area on November 9 and said he was impressed by how KCM had mobilized equipment at short notice and made progress in dredging silt material. Minister of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources Kabinga Pande issued a statement on November 14 that blamed KCM's negligence in failing to replace old pipes as the cause of the spill. He said that an Environmental Council of Zambia inspection of KCM in mid-2006 turned up problems and KCM was given a deadline of December 31, 2006 by which to come into full compliance with environmental requirements. KCM was allowed to resume copper processing operations on November 17 after the ECZ determined it had put sufficient clean-up measures into place. Source: Times of Zambia, November 8-18, 2006 http://www.zambia.co.zm 4) Two-thirds of Zambians lack access to financial services According to a nationwide survey conducted by FinScope Zambia and funded by UK and Swedish development agencies, two-thirds of Zambians do not have access to formal or informal financial services, only 14.6 percent of Zambians have a bank account, and only 7.5 of the adult population use automated teller machine (ATM) cards. The reasons cited for lack of access included the physical distance to banks and high minimum balance requirements for establishing accounts. Over half of the 4,000 people surveyed said that they would like access to banking services. Source: The Post, November 9, 2006 ¶5. Time to register a company with PACRO down to one day Thanks to technical and material support from the Millennium Challenge Account Threshold Program, the Patents and Companies Registration Office (PACRO) has installed an automated system that reduces the time required to register a company from nine to fourteen days to just one day. According to the registrar of PACRO, the new automated system will also reduce costs of registering a business and enhance transparency in the way PACRO operates. PACRO also plans to decentralize the company registration process, by introducing automated registration systems in Ndola, Copperbelt Province; Livingstone, Southern Province; and Chipata, Eastern Province, by March 2007. PACRO registrar Anessie Banda-Bobo, Acting Secretary of Commerce, Trade and Industry Felix Mutati, and SIPDIS Secretary to the Treasury Evans Chibiliti joined Ambassador Carmen SIPDIS Martinez and USAID Mission Director Jim Bednar in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on November 9 to inaugurate PACRO's new, fully-automated customer service center. Source: The Post, November 10, 2006; U.S. Embassy Lusaka website ¶6. Chilanga Cement launches construction of new plant President Mwanawasa laid the foundation stone for a new USD 120 million cement plant that is being built for Chilanga Cement, a subsidiary of French-owned LaFarge. A Chinese company, CBMI, which works with LaFarge in China and France, received the contract to build the modern, environmentally-friendly plant to replace Chilanga LUSAKA 00001627 002 OF 002 Cement's 1948-vintage plant. Seven cabinet Ministers, other VIPs, and business representatives also attended the opening ceremony on November 22. When completed in 2008, the "Tukule project" will produce 80,000 bags of cement (2,000 tons) per day, doubling Chilanga's current production capacity. In his remarks at the event, the President urged Chilanga Cement to reduce the cost of cement, so that prices remained affordable for Zambian citizens, and to spur more construction. He also challenged Chilanga's management to assist the compound community near the factory by building and improving housing. Source: Times of Zambia, November 23, 2006; Embassy Commercial FSN observations MARTINEZ