Zambia is a
landlocked plateau country in Southern Africa which is linked by road, rail and air
services to its bordering countries: Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola,
Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. The country covers an area of 752,617 square kilometres and has a population of over 8.7
million people. The bulk of the population lives along the railroad line, which runs from
Livingstone on the Zambezi river to the Copper Belt in the north. In this path are the ten
largest urban conglomerations, including the capital city Lusaka. Zambia was formerly a
British Protectorate, but it gained independence in October 1964.
Zambia has a great
potential for agricultural development and tourism which has not yet been realised. The
economy revolves around the large copper mining industry which was nationalised after
independence. The fall in 1970 of the international copper price, combined with
ill-advised state policies and the armed conflict in neighbouring countries, led to
economic decline. Zambia was compelled to borrow heavily from abroad until it found itself
saddled with a huge debt burden. The democratic elections since 1991 and the promises by
government for reforms and rapid development have so far failed to bring economic
recovery. Current economic plans focus on structural adjustment programmes, including
privatisation of state corporations (parastatals) to revive the entire economy.
Despite some
improvements over the last few years, Zambia's telephone network is still at a very low
level of development with approximately 83,100 main lines in operation in 1999 and a
telephone density of 0.93 line per hundred population. The deregulation of the
telecommunications sector was carried out with the separation of the postal and
telecommunications services in 1994 and the establishment of an independent
telecommunications regulatory authority in 1995.
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