President of the Republic of Malawi H.E. Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika is by all objective measurements concluding a very productive trip to Washington DC which saw him bring Malawi State house offices to The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia. At the Ritz-Carlton Malawi President commandeered an office with all Malawi draping’s and has been conducting business to see how he can develop Malawi.
This trip saw the Malawi President maligned by would be haters who claimed the President had lied about his reasons for coming to the USA. To show faulty reasoning in their logic they claimed He President Mutharika was coming to an event that had already taken place. Some claimed the President was sick and visiting the USA to seek medical treatment. Some who do not understand the IRS tax filing procedures accused him of coming to file his taxes on the 15th of April.
Some even accused the Maravi Post as part of the bootlickers for Mutharika because we reported the original story that The International Congressional Conservation Gala (ICCF) was on 22 April 2015 award Malawi President Peter Mutharika and his Gabonese counterpart, Ali Bongo Ondimba for their commitments on issues of conservation and development in Africa.
However let’s not waste time with those who will never give Peter Mutharika his due after clobbering their candidates in last year’s May 20th elections. They will never accept his legitimacy and will continue to find ways to undermine his Presidency. The President as originally reported by The Maravi Post is tonight as we go to post being honored by The International Congressional Conservation Gala (ICCF).
According to a statement from the organizers of the event tonight, International Conservation Caucus Foundation-ICCF, President Mutharika will be honored for working tirelessly towards trans-border solutions on conservation in Southern Africa. “Malawi is a signatory to the 2014 Arusha Declaration on Regional Conservation and under the leadership of President Mutharika, Malawi has declared total war on combating wildlife and environmental Crime,” reads the statement in part.
Just yesterday, The Malawi President had what he termed a vital meeting with the directors of Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) in Washington DC. OPIC is a U.S. government agency that provides project financing, investment insurance and other services for U.S. businesses in 154 developing nations and emerging economies.
Since taking office in May, 2014, President Mutharika said his government has embarked on several legislative and administrative reforms to make Malawi attractive to Foreign investment. Therefore, during the meeting, he assured OPIC that the Malawi Government remains committed to create the most conducive environment in Malawi for Investments as private capital is key to his development agenda for country.
President and Chief Executive Officer of OPIC Elizabeth Littlefield was excited with the developments and initiatives taking place in Malawi and assured us that they are ready to woo companies to invest in Malawi and provide loans and finances in areas of agro-processing, power sector, infrastructures, transport and tele-communication, and risk mitigating among others.
A Consortium of development partners on Monday called on the president Peter Mutharika to present their proposal to invest in power resource development in Malawi.
Presenting the proposal on behalf of the Development Partners, Professor James Nicholas who is the Executive Partner stated that the proposal outlines the team’s capabilities and interest in assisting Malawi meet its goal of doubling its energy output by year 2020 “We recognize that a vibrant energy sector is required to fuel economic growth and industrial development, hence their proposal to work with the Malawi Government to fast track Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) and other regulatory items to facilitate project acceptance”, said Nicholas.
The Executive Partner assured the president that the team was ready, willing and able to work with Malawi Government through the Ministry of Natural Resources , Energy and Mining to achieve project goals adding that their local Malawi partner was poised to coordinate and facilitate the project development plan in order to meet agreed upon milestones.
Receiving the proposal president Peter Mutharika said that the Malawi Government is committed to strengthening its power capacity to meet the high demand for electricity.
“The current generation capacity of electricity in Malawi stands at 408 megawatts and that the projections for energy demand suggests that the country will require at least 700 megawatts in 2015 and 829 megawatts in the year 2020”, explained Mutharika.
Peter Mutharika has appealed to Phillip Morris International (PMI) of USA to consider increasing their tobacco buying prices depending on the market forces to enable farmers meet at least some of their economic challenges. “Farmers face a lot of problems ranging from bank and group loans, farm inputs to natural disasters, an increase in their profit margins would make a huge difference in their lives”, said Mutharika during a meeting with the Chairman of Phillip Morris International, Philip Morris in Washington on Tuesday.
He assured the company which is the major customer for Malawi tobacco representing approximately 50 percent of the market share that his government has put in place a series of measures in order to produce a clean and compliant tobacco crop. Among other measures, Mutharika said government has rolled out a robust Integrated Tobacco Production Systems (IPS) based on good agricultural practices, good labour practices, and good environmental management practices (re-a forestation) and migration to a comprehensive, decentralized tobacco grower registration system to enhance traceability and to enable the definitiveness of the data.
Mutharika also stated that Malawi is one stop shop for all major types of tobacco which include; burley, flue cured and dark fire cured tobacco making the country one of the largest producer of tobacco in Africa. He said it was in this regard that his government was requesting the Philip Morris International to upscale their presence in Malawi by increasing its investments in the country that is making Malawi the headquarters for the African Region.
These are just a few business meetings The Malawi President held in his Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia make shift office. There are a lot more meetings that the president conducted to see how Malawi can be developed. Many Malawians should take note that the Consortium of development partners who want to bring Solar Energy to Malawi had been trying to approach governments before Mutharika’s to no avail.
When Professor James Nicholas the spoke person for the Consortium of development partners spoke by phone with the Maravi Post recounting his experience with President Mutharika, he was full of praise. He said President Mutharika was very attentive during the Presentation and asked questions that showed he was fully engaged and wanted to make sure they understood that his only interest was to benefit the development of Malawi.
Upon the conclusion of their Presentation the Malawi President directed Malawi’s Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister George Chaponda to make sure that a Memo of understanding was signed with the investors before he left for Malawi.
Tonight President Mutharika concludes a very fruitful trip.
