’ s incomes highly volatile. apart from private investment being a stimulus for job creation, development of local suppliers, skills transfer ; it can be a critical source of long - term capital for driving economic diversification. i urge you to reflect on all these issues so that the final document that is produced from this effort will be comprehensive and point to viable strategies that will promote economic diversification through directed private investment. the end result of this workshop will be posted on the website of the bank of zambia and zambia development agency. the zambia development agency will incorporate the recommendations submitted from this exercise into its policy recommendations on how to improve the investment climate in the country. with these few remarks, i wish you good deliberations. i thank you … bis central bankers ’ speeches

bwalya k e ng ’ andu : improving the investment climate in zambia opening remarks by dr bwalya k e ng ’ andu, deputy governor ( operations ) of the bank of zambia, at the foreign private investment & investor perception survey 2011 dissemination workshop, lusaka, 22 december 2011. * * * permanent secretaries ; chief executive officers ; distinguished participants ; ladies and gentlemen. i would like to welcome you all, on behalf of the bank of zambia, the zambia development agency and the central statistical office, to this foreign private investment and investor perceptions 2011 survey dissemination workshop. i want also to take this opportunity to thank the companies that participated in the survey which was conducted by the three institutions in the third quarter of 2011. the insights and the various valuable revelations on the investment climate in zambia contained in the survey report were only made possible by their co - operation and support to the process. we want to thank them most sincerely. this dissemination workshop is built around two objectives. the first one is to give representatives of respondent companies the chance to comment on the contents of the report. in this sense, this can be considered as a validation workshop from which inputs into the final version of the report will be received. the second objective is to give the three institutions that commissioned the survey the opportunity to receive feedback on what the community of investors considers to be the main issues in investment. specifically, it should help the government through zambia development agency to understand the concerns of investors and formulate, if possible, better strategies for improving the investment climate. as we discuss this report, it is important that we put into perspective some of the reasons why it was decided that a survey of investor perceptions should be carried out. the first reason has been to do with the fact that the perceptions of investors are a good proxy for measuring the investment climate. this arises from them being actively involved in implementation and are, if you like, at the receiving end of existing investment policy. more importantly, existing investors are a country ’ s most important promoters of investment. their views on the investment climate are more likely to be trusted by prospective investors than even those of the official investment promotion agencies such as zambia development agency. some prospective investors may take the view that official investment promotion agencies paint a rosy picture of the investment climate. existing investors, on the contrary, are presumed to present factual position based on their own experience. investor perceptions, therefore, are important because where the perceptions are positive, it can reasonably be assumed that those