Rail concession not favouring Zambia
Finance and National Planning Minister Ng’andu Magande has expressed dissatisfaction with the operations of the Rail Systems of Zambia (RSZ), the concessionaire operating the country’s rail network.
Mr. Magande, who is in Washington DC to attend the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings which will convene on April 12 and 13th respectively, said there is need to revisit the current rail concession which he said was not favouring Zambians.
At a meeting with the Vice President of the African Region of the World Bank, Dr Obi Ezekwesili, Mr. Magande said the Zambian rail system had collapsed.
The Finance and National Planning Minister requested the World Bank to help Zambia in reviewing the rail concession.
Mr. Magande Zambia was now relying on the road network to transport equipment and goods and that some of the roads had been badly damaged because of overriding.
Recently, President Mwanawasa described the state of the country’s rail system as shameful and directed Minister of Transport and Communications Dora Siliya to investigate the reasons for its failure to deliver services.
The Minister also took time to brief the World Bank Vice President for African region on the strides that Zambia was making on the construction of the Kazungula Bridge.
He said the site for the construction of the bridge would now cost more than had been anticipated because the site had been moved through Namibia from Zimbabwe.
The Finance Minister called on the World Bank to work closely with the Zambian government in addressing the country’s infrastructure challenges especially the energy sector.
Mr. Magande said that the power outages that the country is facing had greatly affected the economic performance of the country.
He said as a result, Zambia had put in place medium and long term measures to conserve energy.
The Minister said the long term and permanent solutions would be to build new or expand the existing power stations.
Mr. Magande said currently China was helping to expand the Kariba Dam on Lake Kariba which serves as a key source of hydropower to the nation.
He further said that the Tata Holdings Group of Companies from India was working with the Zambia Electricity Supply Company (ZESCO) on hydro-electricity project on the Kafue River.
Mr. Magande further mentioned that the Zambian government had removed duty on energy saving bulbs, solar panels and generators in order to help improve efficiency in energy consumption.
Other sectors that required urgent attention were health and education.
He noted that Zambia was facing a problem of resource capacity building in health and education sectors and that this was a challenge to the country.
In response, the African Region of the World Bank, Dr Obi Ezekwesili said Zambia has a lot of potential for enhancing economic development and that it could be a showcase to development to other countries.
She echoed the need for the World Bank and Zambia to work together in developmental projects and called for better management of resources.