Lubinda reads Minewatch?

The Post reports that outspoken Patriotic Front MP Given Lubinda, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Affairs and Labour, has asked the government to revise taxation of the mines immediately. Lubinda said recent admissions by Paul Collier, a former director of the Development Research Group at the World Bank, that the development agreements signed by Zambia with copper mining companies were a disgrace should give the government impetus to demand a better deal. Collier’s comments were recently reported by Minewatcher. Given, are you reading? Welcome!

Lubinda complained about an invasion by unscrupulous investors. “Some of these sham investors operate in all other activities than the ones for which they applied investment and immigration permits." He called for the establishment of regulations that stimulate backward and forward linkages between foreign and local enterprises. “There is no reason why the government should give lucrative investment terms to foreign investors than to local investors,” Lubinda said. “This is one of the reasons why foreign investors import overalls that are manufactured locally even by our women in their backyards. It is worth noting that quite a number of the consumer products that we import from China are actually manufactured by small entrepreneurs in the backyards of their homes.” Lubinda said his committee was impressed with the rapid investments being made at Konkola Deep Mining Project in Chingola. “With the new developments, KCM will require additional labour,” he said. “Your committee urges the government to insist that KCM and any other investors who import skills put in place a deliberate programme for locals to take over these positions.”