ZAMBIA SEEKS INVESTORS FOR TAX FREE ZONE INDUSTRIES

Zambia wants foreign and local investors to set up industries in a special tax free zone as the southern African country prepares to complete basic infrastructure at the site, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.

Reuters quoted the Finance Minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane, as saying that Zambia, Africa's top copper producer, was looking for investors to create industries that would process raw materials such as copper, and make some of the components used in mining which are currently imported.

'The infrastructure like roads, water and telephone lines is more or less done and the effort that is there now is to market the zone by attracting investors,' Musokotwane said in a statement.

The zone is located in the mineral-rich Copperbelt.

China Nonferrous Metal Mining, which has promoted development of the zone, plans to invest $300m between 2010 and 2011 in projects such as the Chambishi copper smelter, its President, Mr. Luo Tao, said.