Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Former Commerce Minister in the MMD Government Felix Mutati says the only viable investment Zambia can presently make in the energy sector is through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).
Mr. Mutati has advised that if government is therefore going to use the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to raise funds to invest in the country’s energy sector PPPs should be the way to go.
He has told Qfm News in an interview by telephone that the IDC must partner through a PPP in order to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and delivery of any power generation project it will consider undertaking.
Mr. Mutati has cautioned that leaving all projects to the IDC will result in the country digesting the historical bureaucracy that has been associated with most parastatals in the country.
He advised that government should keep in mind that already out of the 40 plus parastatals operating in Zambia, almost 38 of them are loss making.
Mr Mutati says this therefore gives an idea about the capabilities of parastatals in the country currently.
He says if government does not want the IDC to be in the queue of loss making parastatals it must heed this advice to go by the route of PPPs for all projects it will undertake in the energy sector.
Mr. Mutati has also reiterated the need for government to introduce cost reflective tariffs for the energy sector to encourage more foreign investments into power generation.