The board of the Development Bank of Southern Africa last month approved a grant to the Zambian government for road construction.
"This deal is all about facilitating regional integration on the continent," the bank's communications manager, Jacky Mashapu, said last week.
Zambia shares borders with Tanzania, Malawi, Botswana, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This grant will open up Zambia's western Mtwara and Nacala regional corridors, which link the country to neighbouring states.
The 850km Mtwara corridor connects Zamibia to Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania, according to the Tanzania's National Development Corporation.
The Nacala corridor is a 1033km stretch of land situated between Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia, information from the African Development Bank shows.
Several of SA's top retailers are active in Zambia and other neighbouring countries. Pick n Pay, Shoprite and Massmart, through its Game franchise, have a presence in Zambia, while South African telecommunications firm MTN also has a footprint in the region.
Tamra Veley, spokesman for Pick n Pay, said that the road construction would assist the group in realising its ambition to open seven stores in Zambia over the next five years - and a further 13 within 10 years.
She said the southern African region was an increasingly attractive market for Pick n Pay.
Massdiscounters, a subsidiary of the Massmart group which operates a Game store in Zambia, also welcomed the efforts to improve transportation facilities in the region.
"Any improvement to infrastructure in Africa is welcomed by retailers, particularly given that we transport goods through Zambia," Massmart's director for Africa, Mark Turner, said Wednesday.
The World Bank recently released a study that singled out the lack of modern infrastructure as an impediment to trade and regional integration in Africa.
The continent needed to invest up to $93bn a year to upgrade its poor infrastructure facilities, the report said.
Zambia is a member of two influential regional trade bodies: the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and the Southern African Development Community (Sadc).
Comesa, which consists of 19 states, says it includes 430-million people and, according to 2008 figures, has an annual import bill of about $152bn and an export bill of more than $157bn.
Sadc, on the other hand, has 15 member states, claiming a total of 257,7-million inhabitants with a combined annual gross domestic product of $471,1bn.
Source: Business Day
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