The Minister of Industry and Trade, Joseph Mwanamvekha on Monday invited Indian business captains of industry to invest in Malawi.
The Minister was speaking at the Partnership Conference held at the Harbour Park beach in Visakhapatnam, the coastal city of Andra Pradesh in India.
Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance, Government of India, inaugurated the Conference in the company of the Chief Minister of the State of Andra Pradesh, Rt. Hon Nara Chandrababu Naidu; the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Hon. Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman and Trade Ministers from Africa and Asia.
The Conference has attracted over 1,400 delegates with 350 of them coming from outside India.
In his address at the Conference, Mwanamvekha informed the gathering that Malawi offers many investment opportunities in agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, mining, energy, infrastructure, real estate, information communication technology (ICT) and financial services to prospective investors. He outlined the reforms, which the Malawi Government had embarked upon to improve the ease of doing business in Malawi and to attract foreign direct investment (FDIs). He informed the gathering “many incentives were waiting for hem in Malawi.”
He assured prospective investors that Malawi was a safe and stable country and that their investments would be safe in Malawi as the country was also a signatory to the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).
The Minister informed the gathering that the Government of Malawi had, in addition, set up and streamlined the Malawi Trade and Investors Centre (MITC) to make it more efficient in the delivery of its service as a one–stop- window for expediting registration of new investments in Malawi.
Mwanamvekha further assured the prospective investors at the conference that Malawi offers a huge potential market. He singled out some of the potential markets under the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA); the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC); the Africa Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA); the Everything But Arms trade regime with the European Union (EU); and the Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme offered by India, as some of the potential markets for any investor considering to invest in Malawi.
The Conference was jointly organised in this coastal city of India by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the State Government of Andra Pradesh and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. Visakhapatnam is an industrial port city, located along the shores of Bay of Bengal. It boasts of a wide range of manufacturing companies. With a GDP in excess of $26 Billion (USD), Visakhapatnam is the principal commercial hub of the state, and contributes to its economy in a number of sectors including heavy industries, tourism, industrial minerals, fishing, and information technology technology. Visakhapatnam Port is the fifth busiest port in India in terms of cargo handling.
Mwanamvekha had several engagements with cabinet Ministers and prospective investors on the sidelines of the Conference. The Minister held bilateral discussions with his counterpart, the Minister of Commerce and Industry Hon. Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman and the Chief Minister of the State of Andra Pradesh, Rt. Hon Nara Chandrababu Naidu in Visakhapatnam.
In his interaction with Sitharaman, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Mwanamvekha thanked the Government of India for the Cotton Technical Assistance Programme (TAP) extended to Malawi. He observed that the programme had greatly assisted Malawi to boost the production of cotton in Malawi. He also thanked the Government of India for extending to Malawi the 400 Million Line of Credit and various Grants to the Government of Malawi as announced at the recently held India-Africa Forum Summit held in New Delhi in last October.
Mwanamvekha thanked the Government of for extending the invitation to Malawi to be part of the Partnership Conference in Andra Pradesh.
In his engagement with the Chief Minister of Andra Pradesh, Mwanamvekha and the Chief Minister exchanged information on how Malawi and the State of Andra Pradesh could cooperate in various spheres of development.
Subscribe for Email Updates
{module 684}
