Malawi needs to produce value added goods and make items that can sell on the international market if the country has to benefit from the Africa Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) which Malawi signed in Egypt President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika said Wednesday.
Briefing the media in Sharma el Sheikh, Egypt on Thursday President Mutharika who signed the tripartite free trade area pact which enables free movement of goods and services between 26 different African countries said, “We must take advantage of the signing of the pact yesterday to produce goods that can sell on the bigger market, if we do not have such goods there is no point having such a market.’’
The President also said infrastructure development and physical security is a key for investment in Malawi.
“We cannot have a country with political instability, we also need to be careful on how we market Malawi to the outside world, and we need to avoid demonizing the country to the outside world,” he added.
The President also said there was need to increase all power generating capacity be it hydro, solar, biomass to ensure there is enough power in the country.
“At the moment we only have 351 megawatts, we need a 100 megawatts more, the plan is to add 400 megawatts by 2020,” he said.
President Mutharika also said bad information about Malawi scares investors, saying negativity stories about Malawi being an Aids infested, poor Southern African country are not good for the country.
He further said investors are interested in rule of law of country and he was excited that Malawi has never persecuted any one and there was no political prisoners.
Mutharika said since his government came into power it has created an enabling environment which has led to a Chinese Telecommunication Firm plans in rolling out its operations and two Egyptian companies interested in tobacco processing and manufacturing of cigarettes.
“My main goal is for Malawi to be self-sufficient and independent in five years and improve the lives of Malawians if these companies come, the price of tobacco would go up, and if the telecommunication company comes, the GDP of Malawi will grow,” he explained.
