Turkish investors head for Zambia

By SANDRA MACHIMA A DELEGATION of potential investors from Turkey’s 55,000-member Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MUSIAD), is next month expected in Zambia to explore investment opportunities in the agriculture sector.

The trip will enable the four-member team explore the possibility of establishing an agricultural equipment assembly plant.

They will also look into the acquisition and cultivation of over 200 hectares for commercial farming and agro-processing using highly mechanised methods to ensure optimum crop output.

Charge d’affaires of Zambia in Turkey, Bwalya Nondo said President Edgar Lungu and his administration had placed agriculture at the core of economic development.

In July, the Zambian mission in Ankara mobilised and conducted an investment promotion forum in Turkey’s agricultural hub Konya, at which 15 reputable Turkish companies under the umbrella of MUSIAD expressed interest in undertaking an investment mission to Zambia.

The 15 potential investors signed forms to express their interest to invest across various sectors in Zambia as a demonstration of their seriousness to have a presence in Zambia.

The proposed business mission to Zambia was announced in Ankara on Wednesday when the delegation comprising MUSIAD president Omer Faruk Okka, vice-president Hifsi Soydemir and Board member, Mehmet Hilmi Kagnici, paid a courtesy call at the Zambian Chancery.

MUSIAD president Omer Faruk Okka said MUSIAD had mobilised an initial delegation of four board members to undertake a business mission to Zambia next month to explore investment opportunities, especially in the agriculture sector following interaction with the Zambian mission.

He said his delegation would also lay the ground for other Turkish companies under the umbrella of MUSIAD to visit Zambia on a business mission planned for the first quarter of next year.