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REPUBLIC OF MALAWI

STATEMENT BY

HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. ARTHUR PETER

MUTHARIKA,

PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALAWI

AT THE

OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE 27TH MALAWI

INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR,

ON

22ND

MAY 2015,

CHICHIRI TRADE FAIR GROUNDS, BLANTYRE.

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Your Excellency the First Lady of

the Republic of Malawi, Madam

Gertrude Mutharika;

Your Honour the Vice President,

Saulosa Klaus Chilima and

Madam Chilima;

The Minister of Industry and

Trade, Hon. Joseph

Mwanamvekha, M.P.;

The Chief Secretary to the

Government Mr. George

Mkondiwa and all senior

government officials;

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Mr. Arthur Chirwa,Deputy

President of the Malawi

Confederation of Chambers of

Commerce and Industry

(MCCCI) and the rest of Business

Captains;

All Members of the Diplomatic;

The Mayor of the City of

Blantyre, Councillor Noel

Chalamanda;

Distinguished Invited Guests;

Ladies and Gentlemen.

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It gives me great pleasure to be

here this morning to officially open

the 27th Malawi International Trade

Fair, under the theme Achieving

Regional Integration through

Trade.

At the outset, let me thank the

President of the Malawi

Confederation of Chambers of

Commerce and Industry (MCCCI)

for inviting me personally to

preside over this important

function.

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Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

My Government recognizes the

importance of regional economic

integration in achieving our

national economic goals through

private sector development,

industrialization, and export led

growth and development. The

theme for this years trade fair

Achieving Regional Integration

through Trade is therefore,

pertinent and relevant to my

Governments policies and efforts

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on regional economic integration. I

am saying all this because no

country in the world has grown on

its own without participation in the

global village and Malawi is no

exception. It is through

participation in the different

regional economic integration

initiatives that small countries like

Malawi will grow.

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and

Gentlemen

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This years Trade Fair, is also about

celebrating and supporting

Malawians who are showcasing

their products despite numerous

challenges that they face. I say well

done for participating in this

important activity. My Government

is committed to facilitating the

hosting of such annual Trade Fairs.

It is through such fora that we sell

Malawi to potential investors and

trading partners. We, therefore,

need to embrace trade fairs as one

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platform to showcase products and

learn new ways of doing business.

In this regard, I would like to urge

all Malawians to take this event

seriously and to urge public officers

in Government to provide the

necessary support to participants in

such events.

Distinguished Ladies and gentlemen

Having gone through the stands in

this fair, I have noticed that there

are many Small and Medium

Enterprises participating in this Fair.

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My Government recognizes the

importance of SMEs and

entrepreneurship as drivers of

economic growth and poverty

reduction.

Let us support our SMEs by buying

Malawian products. In so doing,

we will be promoting and

encouraging industrialization

thereby creating jobs and reducing

the structural trade deficit.

In addition, I would like to

encourage large companies to

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develop business linkages and

support SMEs by buying and

procuring goods and services from

SMEs and entering into smart

partnerships with them. In order to

ease accessibility of working capital

by these SMEs, Financial Institutions

operating in this country should

also develop innovative products

and matching grants that can grow

businesses.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

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My Government is aware that for

the private sector to flourish and

prosper, they need a proper

business environment and support

services that allow them to attract

financing, human capital, networks

and markets. The world has moved

towards trading along value chains

across borders. These value chains

are important avenues for the

private sector to add value to their

products, to diversify and to

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innovate. They offer opportunities

for new producers, including SMEs.

Within the last few months my

government has been in office, we

have worked tirelessly to develop

policies and strategies to facilitate

industrial development in line with

the Malawi Growth and

Development Strategy. There is an

Industrial Strategy which is building

upon the agreed regional industrial

strategy and roadmap adopted at

the recently held SADC Summit of

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Heads of State and Government in

Zimbabwe. The strategy advocates

frontloading of industrialization to

stimulate economic growth.

Certainly, Government has a

greater role to play toward

implementation of the strategy if

we are to benefit from the strategy

and the onus is on all of us to work

in a collaborative manner.

Furthermore, COMESA countries

have also agreed to push for the

industrialization drive and thereby

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promote exports and economic

growth.

Distinguished Ladies and gentlemen

You will recall that Government

launched the National Export

Strategy (NES) which aims at

supporting the export

diversification drive. There are

many sectors in which Malawian

businesses have a real chance to

develop, grow and in time, export.

What the NES highlights is that the

Malawian people have a

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comparative advantage in trading

in oil seeds, manufactures and sugar

products, amongst others.

Therefore, both the private sector

and the government have to play

their roles towards ensuring that the

NES is fully implemented for the

benefit of the people of Malawi.

With the NES we expect to see

Malawian businesses in the

prioritized sectors grow, add

greater value to products, move up

the value chain, and

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internationalize in tandem with

consumer trends and demands. Of

course these are not the only

sectors where Malawi will excel in

the future. We are already working

on other existing sectors such as

services trade and mining to

complement the existing traditional

sectors.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

You may wish to know that

membership in regional and

multilateral blocks can help create

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increased markets for Malawian

goods and services, allow Malawi

to be involved at the negotiating

table as regional and global policies

are developed; and allow Malawi

to promote its needs and priorities

for trade related capacity building.

It is in view of these that

Government has recently

developed a Trade Facilitation

National Action Plan and

programmes that are aimed at

facilitating both national and cross

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border trade. These programmes

include the establishment of One

Stop Border Posts with the

neighbouring countries,

implementation of the Simplified

Trade Regime (STR), streamlining

of customs documentation and

number of customs agencies at the

border, the setting up of a Trade

Portal and Electronic Single

Window, amongst others. Let me

take this opportunity to thank

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donors for the timely support

towards such initiatives.

In order to promote

industrialization and export led

growth, Government is reviewing

the different incentives to stimulate

the growth of exports. This includes

reviewing all taxes that have an

impact on industrialization, exports

and stimulation of value addition.

In addition, Government is

developing Special Economic Zones

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Framework to promote value

addition through agro processing.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

To promote and facilitate

investment, my Government is

reviewing the investment policy,

established the One Stop Shop in

the Malawi Investment and Trade

Centre (MITC) which is up and

running. Amongst other initiatives,

Government produced a

Compendium of investment

projects last year in order to attract

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investment in the prioritized

sectors. I am therefore pleased to

inform you that on 29th and 30

th

June, 2015, Malawi will host the

first ever Investment Forum which

is expected to attract investments in

agriculture and agro-processing,

manufacturing, tourism, mining,

infrastructure transport, ICT and

telecommunication, financial

services and energy. It is expected

that more than 300 prominent

investors from all over the world

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will participate in the Forum. I

would, therefore, like to urge local

investors to take advantage of the

Forum by preparing bankable

projects which attract investors

during the Forum. As we prepare

for the Forum, I would urge that as

business persons let us engage in

meaningful and strategic business

alliances through public-private

partnerships with the view to

contribute to the development of

our beautiful country.

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Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

Government will continue to

implement appropriate

macroeconomic policies aimed at

reducing inflation and interest rates.

In terms of enhancing access to

finance, several programmes are

being undertaken including having

a fully functioning Development

Bank, provision of support to the

Export Development Fund, and

disbursement of Matching grants to

SMEs, amongst others.

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Distinguished Guests

The supply of reliable energy for

industrial development is vital to

Malawi. Government is fast-

tracking the regional sourcing of

energy, intensifying investment in

the generation and distribution of

electricity, and also the

diversification of energy sources

where renewable energies will be

promoted. This is fundamental

towards creating a strong

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foundation for development of

sustainable industries.

My government will also ensure

increased investment in research

and technology development by

allocating adequate resources

towards revamping the research

centres and utilization of

information obtained from these

centres.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

Finally, I wish to encourage the

local business community to take

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advantage of opportunities that

are available in other markets by

participating in the regional trade

fairs and exhibitions; this will

provide you a platform to integrate

into regional value chains and

overcome some supply side

constraints.

I wish to once again congratulate

all the exhibitors that have shown

exceptional skills in producing and

displaying their goods and services

and wish to encourage others to

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emulate the good example set by

their colleagues.

In conclusion, I would like to

reiterate that Malawi is definitely

on track moving forward. We

therefore must keep the

momentum so that we continue

building our economy collectively.

The private sector, particularly the

Malawi Confederation of Chambers

of Commerce and Industry, must

stop blaming Government for not

doing much. Time has come for the

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private sector to offer practical

solutions to address challenges that

the business community is facing.

The role of Government is only to

provide an enabling environment

for the private sector through the

policy and regulatory environment.

Government does not do business

and I therefore call upon the

private sector to be aggressive and

innovative in finding solutions to

the problems it faces. Instead of

asking what Government can do

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for you, the private sector should

be reflecting on what they can do

for Government because we are in

this together. We sail or we sink

together!

With these remarks, I declare the

27th Malawi International Trade

Fair officially opened.

I thank you for your attention.

May God us all and bless mother

Malawi