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| Govt kicks off Nacala campaign |
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by
Ayam Maeresa, 19 March 2003
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Government Wednesday met private sector players in Liwonde, kicking off a campaign to market at home investment opportunities lying in the Nacala Development Corridor (NDC), a tripartite spatial development concept with Mozambique and Zambia to stimulate economic growth and reduce the poverty of about 16 million people in the zone.
NDC coordinator Luke Jumbe said in an interview on Tuesday that a national ministerial committee of the NDC, comprising Minister of Transport Clement Stambuli and other cabinet members, was due to meet the business community in Liwonde to discuss investment possibilities.
He said government wants to attract investors, especially from the petroleum industry, to invest in a cross-frontier oil pipeline from Mozambique’s northern seaport of Nacala to Liwonde, highly seen as the only way to reduce high transport costs in the country. Jumbe said the meeting was also meant to sell the idea of a constructing a dry port at Liwonde.
“The project is for the private sector. It is the intention of government that the project is accepted and promoted by the private sector, otherwise it would be a white elephant,” said Jumbe, adding that the dry port will serve as the distribution centre of imports to all the three regions.
The corridor, covering four provinces in northern Mozambique, central and southern Malawi and eastern Zambia, is billed to unleash tourism, fisheries and agro-processing projects. Transport is seen as the major supporting pillar to the initiative.
Apart from business projects that are expected to mushroom in the corridor, the three governments are seeking to strengthen the rail transport system between Mchinji border on the Zambia side through Malawi to Nacala port.
At present the line needs millions of dollars for rehabilitation, especially on the problematic 77 kilometre stretch of railway line from Malawi’s border at Nayuchi to Cuamba inside Mozambique. This part was heavily damaged during Mozambique’s 16-year civil war that brought economic activity in the former Portuguese colony to its knees.
Malawi privatised its railways business on a 20-year concession to SDCN, a consortium of north American rail investors owning shares in the Central East African Railways (Cear) but Mozambique is yet to sign concessions agreement to give operational rights with an interested US rail investor Edlow Resources.
Jack Edlow said earlier in Nacala during an investors conference last month about K2.6 billion (US$29 million) has been set aside for investment in infrastructure along the corridor. |
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