President Edgar Lungu says improved economic infrastructure is a prerequisite for accelerating economic transformation, explaining that the economy can only thrive where there is good investment climate.

President Lungu said this, Wednesday, at the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Yokohama, Japan, where the need for individual nation-states in Africa to attract their own investors was emphasized.

According to a statement issued by President Lungu’s Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations Isaac Chipampe, the Head of State said his government recognized the fact that there could be no proper economic transformation without good economic infrastructure.

President Lungu also announced that Zambia was expanding its transport network and energy supply to attract more investments into the country.

He said Zambia had intensified interventions in the manufacturing sector, including the development of multi-facility economic zones, industrial parks and industrial yards.

This year’s TICAD session was chaired by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and was being held under the theme “Accelerating Economic Transformation and Improving Business Environment through Innovation and Private Sector Development.”

Among the leaders who spoke in the plenary were Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Emmerson Mnangagwa (Zimbabwe), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), George Weah (Liberia) and Nana Akafo-Addo (Ghana).

Other leaders were Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who co-chaired the TICAD 7th summit, together with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Prime Minister Abe said his government places high value on human health, stable judiciary systems and governments, while President Sisi said transnational projects, including roads and railways, could transform Africa.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Manuel De Oliviera Guterres and the African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, were among other eminent speakers at this year’s summit.