It is early days yet, but going by the recent announcement of a master plan under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative, in which Chinese companies are tipped to play a major role, Zambia is set to maintain the regional construction boom triggered by the building of stadiums for the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa.
The country's Minister of Finance and National Planning Situmbeko Musokotwane says the government hopes the PPP initiative will grow the country's gross domestic product (GDP) by at least 10 percent within the next five years through increased investments.
It will see construction and refurbishing of major roads, bridges, airports, housing, energy, one-stop border posts and other developments in the service industry. But in line with the country's development plan, the initiative will first focus on infrastructure development. In response to the United Nations (UN) campaign to provide decent shelter for all, some 12,000 residential housing units will emerge across the country, with Lusaka, Livingstone and the Copperbelt each seeing construction of 4,000 of these.
