Mr. Sindiso Ngwenya Secretary General for Common Market for Eastern Africa (COMESA) has assured Malawi Government to carry out an initiative that attempts to prop up the Malawi Projects Compendium in order to attract more investment in the country.
Ngwenya was speaking in Lilongwe at the Malawi Investment Forum (MIF) where Investors drawn from 31 countries were exploring investment opportunities for Malawi. He said the regional grouping will popularize Malawi investment opportunities.
He assured president Mutharika that COMESA Investment Agency based in Cairo which "has had many successful efforts" in raising investments, will be receiving in electronic form of the compendium so that those projects that do not get partners during MIF conference are promoted.
"In the next six three month Your Excellency, I will be able to come to you and say this is what I have done." He challenged
"I will also be coming to Malawi by the end of this month (July) with a team to work on the special economic zones. Because one of the reasons why special economic zones do not work is because of the way we are promoting them." He said
He said the team will work with the government in order to structure special economic zones so that they deliver
"Because as I said; you have a surplus labor, disciple labor, raw materials in the agro-processing. Out of 1.2 billion exports of Malawi, 95% of those exports are agriculture products." He then said adding value to that with a total import bill in excess of 2 billion dollars, Malawi will be able to grow the economy and reduce the trade deficit which is the major challenge now.
Ngwenya maintained "Even my colleagues from IMF would agree that unless we have that structural transformation that diversification of economy based on identifying those specific value chains in which Malawi is competitive", then Malawi can begin create wealth creation.
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