VP Nalumango Arrives In India

Vice President Mutale Nalumango arrived in India on Monday for a four-day trip to attend the Council of Indian Industries (CII) and Exim Bank Conclave on India-Africa Growth Partnership.

Upon arrival at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport she told reporters that India was a vital partner to Zambia’s economic transformation and that while there she hopes to woo investments and enhance trade between the two countries.

“Our coming here fits in very well with the new dawn agenda … as a country we have gone into economic diplomacy, it does not matter where we go, we must fit in this part, and we are here to meet the captains of industry and see which to take home,” the Vice President said.

“We are here to attract our colleagues from India so that they can come home and invest,” she added.

Ms Nalumango is accompanied on the trip by Minister for Small and Medium Enterprise Development Elias Mubanga, as well as Permanent Secretaries for Administration Lilian Kapusana and Mervis Nkhomeshya.

The India-Africa Growth Partnership conclave will run from today until Wednesday, with Nalumango slated as one of three African VPs to address delegates at the event. The conference, which this year is hosted under the theme “Creating Shared Futures”, will bring together some 300 business representatives from Africa alongside 200 Indian captains of industry. 

From there, the Vice President will travel to Gujurat State, where she is expected to tour a dairy plant and explore options for extra value addition in Zambian industry. Afterwards she will visit a pharmaceutical company before addressing the Gujurat Chamber of Commerce and Industries to make the case that Zambia is once again open for business.