Lusaka – 23rd June, 2024 – Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) would like to clarify misinformation currently circulating on the purported allocation of 6 million hectares of land to the Vietnamese investor, Viet-Zam Diversified Operation Limited in various media platforms.
ZDA is the sole Agency responsible for promoting and facilitating trade and investment in Zambia and as such receives investment proposals from a broad range of local and foreign investors. In addition, ZDA registers investors for investment which entitles them to incentives as provided for under the Investment Trade and Business Development Act No 18 of 2022 and other relevant pieces of legislation.
We wish to categorically state that ZDA does not approve or issue land to investors as this mandate is not under the jurisdiction of ZDA. Therefore ZDA has not approved 6 million hectares of land to Viet Zam.
The correct position is that, in line with its mandate ZDA facilitated a consultative meeting on the 18th June 2024 between Viet Zam and the stakeholders where the investor presented his proposal. The investor presented various scenarios of investment from 0ne hectare to 6 million hectares with an indicative investment amount of USD 72 billion over a period of 20 years. The law mandates ZDA to facilitate meetings across sectors at the request of the investor without discrimination or bias.
ZDA in consensus with the stakeholders guided the investor to apply for smaller piece of land in line with the already existing farm block concept where a domestic or foreign investor could apply for 1 to 20,000 hectares of land for their project. Surely this guidance is not in any way approval of 6 million hectares of land. ZDA has no legal mandate to allocate land of any size let alone the purported 6 million hectares.
With regard to incentives proposed by the investor, ZDA provides incentives in accordance with the ITBD Act and any request outside the law is null and void. For avoidance of doubt, we wish to advise that ZDA has not granted any incentives to the investor in question and has no intention of granting any incentives outside what is prescribed in the law.
ZDA is therefore encouraging all investors and the general public to get in touch with the Agency to obtain factual information regarding investment matters of this nature
ZDA takes this opportunity to inform the nation that the Investor Confidence under the New Dawn Government is at its highest ever and as a result the country is experiencing a lot of interest from both local and foreign investors to invest in the country. In this regard ZDA will continue to provide guidance and handholding investors to grow our economy.
Issued by
Prof. Biemba Maliti
Board Chairperson
Zambia Development Agency
