HH Opens Western Province Trade, Tourism and Investment Expo in Mongu

Good morning fellow citizens,

We have concluded late in the evening our tour of duty here in Mongu, where we came to officially open the first ever Western Province Trade, Tourism and Investment Expo where a number of local and international exhibitors in various sectors showcased their products and businesses.

Our mission is to continue accelerating our economic transformation agenda by displaying some of the key areas available for investment opportunities in our country.

We reiterated our call to our citizens to be patriotic by investing locally as our country is endowed with huge economic potential, with Western Province in particular capable of feeding the nation from the vast resources of the Barotse plains, where basically any crops and livestock can be harnessed. We do not accept the long held notion that Western Province, or indeed any part of our country, is poor. We have to change this mindset of poverty by taking advantage of the many business opportunities that are being opened up.

For example, in the value addition sector, we should not accept a situation where timber logs in their raw form from Western Province is being cut and loaded into trucks to the international markets, yet your government has provided huge business opportunities in the manufacturing of desks in the country, same applies to copper and other natural resources that require value addition.

We thanked the business community and other cooperating partners who have so far shown great interest by providing added incentives such as reduced bank interest rates for our people to seize available opportunities.

From these business opportunities, we look forward to increased economic activities that will translate into creation of quality jobs for our citizens, especially the youth and women.

Hakainde Hichilema

President of the Republic of Zambia