The Zambian Government and their neighboring Angolan counterparts have re-affirmed to develop three land borders to enhance trade and business relations. The three modern borders facilities are to be located at Jimbe, Sikongo and Shangombo.
For the Shangombo border, the Zambian government will have to first develop a 10 kilometers water way on the Kwando River as another way of linking Zambia to Angola. This is after the witnessing of the signing of the six memoranda of understandings – MOUs in different areas by Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema with his counterpart the President of Angola Joao Manuel Lourenco.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Infrastructure Development Minister Charles Milupi said Government will on top of developing the Jimbe Boarder in North-Western Province and the Malundo Sikongo Boarder on the western part, will further facilitate the construction of the Canal in Shangombo District.
He explained that there was no need of signing the other MoU as the recent passed regime had already signed and the only need was to develop canals and to have safe boarder securities from both sides.
Zambia and Angola in March, 2014 under the Micheal Chilufya Sata regime, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to construct a canal in Shang’ombo district to link the two countries.
The district borders Senanga district in the east, Kalabo district in the north, Sesheke in the south, and in the west, it is on the borderline of the Angolan district, Rivungu. Shangombo also lies between two water bodies; Zambezi river and Kwando or Cuando river (as it is spelt in Portuguese).
Milupi said once the canal is developed, it will enhance trade between the two countries while jobs will also be created between the two countries. He said the construction of a canal would have multiplier effects as more economic activities would be simulated in the two countries.
He said Shangombo residents would also have an opportunity to supply their products to the Angolan markets. “So again there we can trade but Zambia need to develop the road from nangweshi all the way to phiongokwere make it the international standard road.”
He said if the country can have the three connections, Jimbe in North Western Province, Kalabo/Sikongo in Western province and Further Western Province through ShAangombo canal then the country will have been effective linked in to Angola.
When asked if there are timelines for these important projects to be implemented, Milupe said, “as soon as possible but when you are dealing with the private investors you are depending on the interest that will be shown and the discussions that will take place but remember negotiations may take time because this is uncharted territory.”
“At the moment Government is looking at PPP as there is a lot of interest to do both roads, so Public Private Partnership means people will have to come to us and tell us how much it is going to cost I can’t tell you what is the cost now because then the BIDs will be around the figure that I give you and that is not cost effective as we want to make it competitive.” He added.
