ZAMBIA should fully utilise the Port of Beira as it is strategic and effective in promoting regional integration, Mozambican Port of Beira and Transport Corridor Executive Managing Director Jan de Vries has said.
Mr Vries said that despite the Beira Port being affected by the cyclone which struck Mozambique recently, the port was fully operational.
He was speaking at the official opening of the 2nd Beira Corridor Conference in Ndola yesterday.
“We are renovating the port’s infrastructure and making sure that the new structures are strong enough to withstand any disaster in the future,” he said.
Mr Vries said his organisation would continue to play a strategic and instrumental role for regional development and integration.
He said the Port of Beira was an important asset not only to Mozambique but also the international community as it made enormous contribution to the movement of goods in the Southern region.
And Commercial Director, Miguel De Jenga, said that the organisation decided to hold the conference on the Copperbelt for a strategic purpose.
He said his entourage would engage constructively with key supporters of the Beira Corridor on the Copperbelt during and after the conference.
At the same function, Copperbelt Minister Mr Japhen Mwakalombe said Zambia will continue promoting trade between the two countries in order to broaden the economies through diversified investment opportunities.
Mr Mwakalombe said that Government’s desire was to provide the business fraternity with an environment where the cost of doing business was not only affordable but reliable as well.
The Minister said that the provincial office would seek investment opportunities with strategic partners like the Beira Corridor that want to see the region as a catalyst of economic wealth.
He added the Beira Corridor had enhanced business between the two countries in transportation and logistics.
“The Beira Corridor conference would not have come at a better time than this when Africa adopted a decision to establish a continental free trade area (AFCFTA) that seeks to accelerate intra-African trade and boosting Africa’s trading position in the global market,” he said.
