By JUDITH NAMUTOWE –
THE Government will establish the tourism Multi Facility Economic Zone (MFEZ) in Livingstone aimed at boosting economic activities in the area.
Tourism and Arts Permanent Secretary Stephen Mwansa said in an interview that the ministry had since applied to Commerce Trade and Industry, who will work together with their counterpart in Finance to establish an MFEZ in Livingstone.
Mr Mwansa said Government wanted to establish an economic zone in Livingstone to make it easy for people to invest in the area by providing sector incentives in hospitality industry and other sectors.
The idea of establishing MFEZ is to widen the products that Zambia had and give it competitive advantage.
He said a lot of economic activities slowed down in Livingstone because of the move of provincial capital to Choma, hence the need to establish an MFEZ so as to change Livingstone’s profile.
“So now we can focus on seeing the real Livingstone away from involvement of Government. I hope this can be done as quickly as possible because we have already submitted the document to our counterpart in Commerce, Trade and Industry,” Mr Mwansa said.
He said Government wanted to see whether there would be cultural and other services as well as upgrade quality of craft works.
“You may wish to know that we have hinged heavily on the Victoria Falls and wildlife, but there are a number of people around the world who have no falls and do not have game parks, but they attract more tourists than we do,” he said.