Hichilema Addresses Great Lakes Ministers and Opens Mining Insaka in Lusaka

President Hakainde Hichilema yesterday addressed two regional gatherings in Lusaka, speaking on conflict prevention in the Great Lakes Region before opening the third Zambia Mining and Investment Insaka.

Speaking at the 20th Ordinary Session of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Regional Inter-Ministerial Committee, the President said regional leaders should shift their focus from resolving conflicts to preventing them through economic growth and job creation. He said poverty, hunger and limited economic opportunities were among the underlying causes of instability, and that the ICGLR needed to move beyond two decades of routine meetings to deliver practical solutions. He also called for stronger regional investment partnerships to reduce dependence on Western capital.

Later in the day, President Hichilema opened the Mining Insaka, held under the theme Transforming Africa’s Mining Landscape: Regional Value Chains, Shared Prosperity and Empowering Communities. He urged licence holders who were not using their licences to develop their mines or enter into partnerships and joint ventures.

He said the Government aims to produce three million metric tonnes of copper a year by 2031, that the national geophysical mineral survey will be completed within a month, and that the local content requirement will rise from 20 to 40 per cent.

The President said mining benefits should extend beyond corporate social responsibility projects to employment, skills training and contracts for local suppliers. He called on Zambia, the DRC and Botswana to collaborate on regional value chains, and urged companies, investors and regulators to resolve disputes through dialogue rather than litigation.