Zambia Case Study

Zambia is a landlocked country in South-East Africa rich in natural resources, among which copper and cobalt mining, and vast territories, most suitable for agriculture. Throughout the 19th century, Britain colonized Zambia to exploit these resources; in 1889, the British South Africa Company (BSAC) took control of Zambia and begun to mining copper in vast quantities. By the Second World War, Zambia had become the largest importer of copper in Britain. In 1953, Zambia was included in the Central African Federation that was controlled by Britain but allowed Zambians to participate in politics. The federation was stable until 1956 when the price of copper fell and the wages of mining workers decreased. In response to the Britain’s political dominance

Today, Zambian manufactured products are marketed only in the domestic economy and compete with products imported from Asia. Zambia still lacks technologies and skilled labors able to treat raw materials as to produce the manufacture keeping costs as competitive and the quality as high as imported goods. For this reason, Zambia exports a great part of the raw materials it produces to countries that have sufficient appliances to process them in the entire production chain. For example, considering Zambian cotton production, three quarters of all raw cotton is exported and only one quarter is treated and marketed domestically (Dinh 37). The final product coming from this quarter has lower quality and higher price than imported products (Dinh 37). Investments in new technologies and in education for labor to lower the prices of production and increase the products quality can develop the manufacturing sector because Zambia’s products could be marketed internationally. In this way, “Zambia could capture more value from its raw materials, create more employment, and generate more foreign exchange” (Dinh,