LUSAKA, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank is ready to support Zambia's forest plantation program to strengthen the country's forestry sector, the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment has said.
The ministry said this followed a meeting in Lusaka between Minister Gilbert Siame and a World Bank team led by Ambroise Brenier on Thursday, according to a statement released after the meeting.
Brenier said the bank was ready, upon receiving a formal government request, to begin preparing the 102-million-U.S.-dollar Lobito Plantation Forest Economy program.
The proposed program would support an enabling policy and institutional environment for private investment in plantation forestry, while facilitating public infrastructure and services needed to develop the timber value chain.
It could combine public and private financing through the International Development Association, International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.
Siame thanked the World Bank for its continued support, saying the program could mobilize private investment, generate revenue for the national treasury and create jobs across the forestry value chain. He said Zambia has favorable ecological conditions for commercial plantation forestry and growing demand for timber products.
