JTI Asks Malawi Govt To Revise Tobacco Policies

The Japanese Tobacco Industry (JTI) wants Malawi government to address some of the policies and regulations that are directly affecting companies in Tobacco industry.

The company has observed that some of the old regulations are an impediment for a win-win situation among the key players in the tobacco industry.

JTI’s Cooperate Affairs and Communication Director Mr. Limbani Kakhome made these remarks in Lilongwe at a JTI’s facilitated workshop called ‘Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) Seminar’ aim at enhance skills for the Directors from various government Ministries and Departments in becoming effective policy and regulatory makers.

Mr. Limbani mentioned current policy called ‘Integrated Production System policy (IPS)’ which government already adopted and JTI’s ‘Facilitated Farming System (FFS)’ as some of the policy examples that needs to be shared in order to achieve their main goal which is to see both government, people and companies benefit from tobacco industry.

 “Change is always important things keep on moving and we don’t want to be static. A lot of laws that are in tobacco industry now were done in the 70s or early 1980s. There has been a lot of policy shifts between 1994 and now,” said Limbani adding thus JTI has taken a lead in organizing the workshop in order to find ways how government and the private sector can develop much more effective policies and regulations.

He underlined that through the seminar, JTI wants to help government decision makers, start craft “better regulatory decisions based on information and empirical analysis about the potential consequences of government action.”

Deputy Chief Secretary to the Government Mr. Willie Samute when officially opening the seminar said Malawi government is keen to have good regulations and laws that reflect aspirations of Malawi Growth Strategy Framework.

He offered assurance that it is Malawi government wish to “undertake reforms that are necessary to protect the public by eliminating unnecessary regulation.”

“Malawi needs regulations that safeguard economic activity and facilitate business operations. We also want regulations that are people friendly” he said

He went on “As government we realize that poor quality of laws and regulations can seriously hamper economic growth and sustainable development. On contrary, effective regulatory regime enhances trade performance. Everywhere in the world, governments aim at improving the effectiveness, efficiency and transparency of regulations. Malawi too wants to have regulations that are people friendly, those that minimize public harm but at the same time be business friendly”

He commended JTI for facilitating IRA seminar which he said will aide government capacity to ensure that regulations are efficient and effective in a world that is ever changing, as well as help the trainees to remain useful in their respective fields.

This is a second time that JTI has facilitated seminar of similar kind following last year’s workshop which targeted Principle Secretaries.

JTI wants Directors to appreciate RIA as a highly adaptable policy analysis used in a wide range of administrative contexts to help regulators make right choices.