Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, April 3: Malawi Ambassador Chimango Chirwa on Thursday presented letters of Credence to Ethiopian President Mulatu Teshome in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to strengthen relations between Lilongwe and Addis Ababa.
The Malawi envoy said, “It gives me great pleasure and honour to present to Your Excellency the Letters by which the President of the Republic of Malawi, His Excellency Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, appoints me as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Malawi to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.”
Chirwa said it was an honour for him to represent Malawi to this great and historic African country with which Malawi has had long standing relations that date back to the days of Malawi have had to contend with some daunting challenges that continue to confront our every effort in that direction.
For instance, he said among other challenges, Malawi suffered from effects of poor public finance management and economic governance of the previous Government which led to the country being deprived of the much needed direct budget support it has been receiving from development partners.
He said coupled with this, the recent heavy floods that ravaged most parts of Malawi destroyed lives and infrastructure, derailing development efforts further.
“We now have to deal with health and social welfare challenges that were once eradicated and also rebuild basic infrastructure like roads, bridges, schools, just to mention but a few,” he said.
Chirwa said, despite the foregoing challenges and many others, the Malawi Government under the leadership of President Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika, is determined and committed to bring Malawi back on a sustainable development path as soon as possible.
“Our goal is to change our nation from a consuming and importing country to a producing and exporting one. We have therefore adopted policies aimed at transforming the Malawi economy not only to attain full recovery but also to achieve sustained inclusive economic growth and development in the next few years,” said Chirwa.
He also said already Malawi Government has embarked on implementation of a number of policies which include restoration of the confidence of the private sector in the economy and strengthening of business enterprises; improving public finance management systems; instituting Public Sector Reforms to enable the Government efficiently and effectively deliver services to Malawians.
And, constructing Community Colleges to bridge skills gap and enable self employment; rolling out an affordable housing project to enable ordinary people afford to build their own houses through targeted subsidies.
“It is therefore my ardent desire to ensure that during my tour of duty, the relations between our two countries are taken to new levels. In this regard, I would be eager to see that the Malawi/Ethiopia Cooperation Agreement that we signed some years back is fully implemented.
I am happy to learn that the Ethiopian Parliament has finally ratified the said Cooperation Agreement. I am therefore hopeful that sooner than later, a Joint Permanent Commission of Cooperation between Malawi and Ethiopia will be finalized for the mutual benefit of our two countries and peoples,” he said.
He went on to states in his speech that, “Your Excellency, Malawi has a lot to offer in terms of investment opportunities. The current cooperation we have in air services is a good example that needs to be replicated in other areas.”
He said other areas that could be explored at bilateral level are the Agriculture sector which plays a very important role in our respective economies and remains a priority for Malawi.
He also said the Malawi Government is indeed keen to enhance productivity, diversification and food security and therefore is focusing its attention on commercial agriculture and agro-processing and thus intends to move into intensive irrigated agricultural production under the Green Belt initiative and the tourism sector.
