![\"At](\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/files\/2015\/05\/chamber-of-mines.jpg\")
<\/a>Yesterday we visited the Chamber of Mines, a lobbying group for the mining industry, and learned basically that the industry is troubled, despite its importance to the economy. It produces 68% of the country\u2019s exports, 30% of its government revenue, 9% of GDP, almost 4% of investments, and 1.7 % of employment, according to industry figures.\u00a0 It\u2019s had a turbulent past, having been nationalized at one point.\u00a0 Some of the problems are peculiar to Zambia, and align with what we\u2019ve heard before: that landlocked Zambia has borders with 8 African countries (and the borders can produce long delays\u2014it\u2019s 6 weeks to and from Durban, making for high transportation costs; contrast with Chile, where nowhere is far from the Pacific). Some are endemic to industry in general; as a revenue producer, it\u2019s susceptible to being targeted by politicians and the public for contributing more through taxation.\u00a0 There seems to be little government discussion with the mining industry; one of the executives pointed out that he learned about new taxes only by reading the newspaper.\u00a0 Taxes have also escalated.\u00a0 Furthermore,I don\u2019t think mining has a good reputation anywhere (see the latest Grisham novel about West Virginia mines or read the newspapers about Chinese coal mine deaths, for example), and the aging mines here seem vulnerable to political pressure.\u00a0 When asked why, if conditions are so unfavorable here, there was no move to pull up and pull out, the answers ranged from, \u201cWe\u2019ve got too much invested,\u201d to a belief that in the long haul it\u2019s possible, to some ego-based beliefs \u201cwe can do it.\u201d\u00a0 The executives included some Zambians and a few foreigners, one of whom had been in the industry for 35 years, and I\u2019d love to have questioned him about his experiences elsewhere.\u00a0 As I said, copper may be king, but Zambia is a democracy.<\/p>\n
As I said, it seems to fill a need in a country where\u2014and I haven\u2019t said this earlier\u2014those living under the poverty line comprise 60% of the population.<\/p>\n On to Johannesburg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lusaka Airport Copper May Be King, but Zambia is a Democracy Yesterday we visited the Chamber of Mines, a lobbying group for the mining industry, and learned basically that the industry is troubled, despite its importance to the economy. It produces 68% of the country\u2019s exports, 30% of its government revenue, 9% of GDP, almost … Continue reading “Copper is King, but …”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-south-africa-may-2015"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1465"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8518,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465\/revisions\/8518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>We also visited the University of Lusaka, purportedly the 3rd best university in the country.\u00a0 It\u2019s an unabashedly for-profit business that has returned 33% dividends to investors.\u00a0 Read backward from its $1000 per semester tuition, and you see a university with strict cost controls: 14 full time faculty and over 160 adjuncts and absolutely modest facilities.\u00a0 Its mission is \u201cTo fulfill the ever growing demand for employable human capital in various industries through continuous interaction with\u201d etc., focusing on \u201ctailor made programmes whilst equipping this human capital with cutting edge skills knowledge and information.\u201d If offers doctoral programs in business, but \u201cOther areas of specialization can be given consideration by the University Senate.\u201d Its campus is spartan (the library had one shelf of business books, mostly texts, and two of law; the classrooms have whiteboards but no visible technology) but has almost 5000 students, mostly from Zambia and Zimbabwe. The University borrowed $200,000 to build the current campus, which it paid off in two years, a mark again of its efficiency.<\/p>\n