Fri, 08 Sep 2017 11:58:28 +0000 THE revelation that more than 83 percent of the infrastructure development projects are held by Chinese firms is quite disturbing. Actually the situation is worse. According to Dr. Francis Ndilila, out of 5, 400 registered contractors in Zambia, about 150 are Chinese and yet they account for 97 percent of the contract monetary value of all the contracting projects. The rest, 5, 250 Zambian contractors share a dismal 3 percent of the monetary value of construction works. According to Minister of Infrastructure Development Lucky Mulusa, total capital projects to be undertaken between 2011 and 2021 are valued at more than US$20 billion meaning that most of the money is externalised. It is not true that this vast number of projects being held by Chinese contractors are so complex and beyond the capacity of Zambian entrepreneurs. Many Zambians are quite capable of undertaking some of the most complex construction projects […]
