Chinese contractor China Jiangxi Corp. for International Economic & Technical Corp. has won a $1.2-billion road-construction deal in Zambia, the biggest infrastructure project in the landlocked country's history. CJIC will finance, design and construct the 321-kilometer, two-lane highway that will link Lusaka, Zambia's capital, to Ndola, the city of the country's copper-belt region.
The contract will take 48 months to complete, according to Zambia's state-owned road-sector operator Road Development Agency (RDA). The road also will link Zambia with its mineral-rich neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Zambia, Africa's second-biggest copper producer, hopes to use the expanded road to decongest heavy traffic to its copper-belt region and ease the flow of exports and imports to and from DRC.