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Transport, Works Supply & Communications
Government has created a Railway fund, which
amongst others will be finance from treasury contri-
butions, donors and user pay, such as railway levy.
Government has also suspended the paying of fuel
level by all railway companies, moving away from
the past where railway was subsiding the road sec-
tors, its prime competitor.
Concerning TAZARA, the two Governments of Tan-
zania and Zambia have agreed to continue support-
ing TAZARA and work towards cleaning its balance
sheet by taking over its debt. This represents a sig-
nificant policy shift from the previous position where
a strategic partner was sought to partner with TAZ-
ARA in order to improve its operations. Additionally,
the Government of the Peoples Republic of China
has given TAZARA a total of US$40m grant for vari-
ous infrastructure and operational activities. With the
above policies and strategies, it is the desire and
wish of the Zambian Government, that as the Mining
and Agriculture sectors increase their productive ca-
pacity, the railway sector correspondingly increases
its carry capacity and thereby moving the bulk of
freight from roads to rail. This will only save the life
span of the roads but also ensure that the invest-
ments into the road sector are channelled to other
needy areas, such as health and education.
WATER TRANSPORT
As earlier stated, Water Transport contribution to
transportation is very marginal and is mainly done
at Lake Tanganyika, Mpulungu harbour. However,
there are several areas that rely on transport for
commerce and social activities and these are mainly
found in the Luapula and Western Provinces of Zam-
bia. Further leisure boat services are found at most
tourist sites in Livingstone and Siavonga.
Concerning maritime affairs, the country heavily relies
upon international trade of most goods to/from other
continents by ship. Therefore, the country’s maritime
dependence factor is large and the trend is will rise
exponentially with increasing levels of trade. It is for
this reason that Government is pursuing establishing
Zambian dedicated terminals at the major ports in the
region to cater for this trade. Notable amongst these
are the Zambian Terminal at Walvis Bay, Mombasa
and Mukuba Deport in Dar es Salaam.
COMMUNICATIONS - OVERVIEW
The Zambian Government has embraced Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) as an enabler
of development. Indeed, Government would like to
see to it that ICT infrastructure and services are eq-
uitably distributed and are available to and affordable
for the greatest possible proportion of the population.
In order to promote growth of the sector Government
pursued policies of liberalization of the telecommu-
nications sector in 1994. Since the liberalization of
the communications sector, many positive devel-
opments have taken place in telecommunications,
broadcasting and information communications tech-
nology (ICT), such as the provision of mobile tele-
communication services and Internet facilities, with
deregulation, privatisation and wireless technologies
having opened up new areas of potential investment.
Arising from the liberalization of the sector there has
been steady growth in infrastructure development
and the subsequent roll out of services.
On 28th March 2007 the government launched the
National Information and Communication Technol-
ogy Policy to guide its developmental agenda. Fur-
thermore, in order to stimulate growth and recogniz-
ing the evolution of Information and Communication
Technologies, in 2009, Zambian Parliament enacted
the Information and Communications Technology
(ICT) Act Number 15, the Electronic Communica-
tions and Transactions Act, and the Zambia Postal
Services Act.
The ICT Act Number 15 of 2009 aims to grow the
sector at the same time protecting the interests of
both the operators and the users. The expected out-
comes are:
• Greater Network reach and capacity
• High quality Services
• Efficient delivery of services
•Affordable services equitable distribution of services
• Diverse range of both data and voice applications
that include VOIP and Video Telephony
The Information and Communications Technology
(ICT) Act No 15 of 2009 has ushered in a new licens-
ing framework. Under the new licensing framework,
the licenses issued by the Authority are categorized
into Network and Services Licenses. The new licens-
ing framework has enabled all mobile operators to
be issued with International Gateway licenses. In
transitioning to the new licensing regime license
fees are revised be ensure consistency with the Act.
The transition requirement under the Act is that the
fee payment obligations are no less favourable than
those provided for in previous licenses. In order to
improve the ease of doing business, the licence
fees for operating an international gateway were re-