LILONGWE (MaraviPost)—German ambassador to Malawi Peter Woeste has said Malawi has failed to move forward economically in the past five years as compared to its neighbors.Woeste who is the current chairperson of the Development partners Troika, said this at a high level Forum on Development effectiveness at Bingu International Conference Center (BICC) in Lilongwe.
Among other things Woeste cited a sharp decline in GDP from 2014 to date and the ever increasing number of people in need of food.
“1 billion united states dollars is invested in the country from donors annually, why is the country failing to progress, We are asking ourselves why didn’t the billions of Euros, dollars and pounds in more than fifty years bring results we and all Malawians have been striving for,” he wondered.
Woeste also tipped government to make its priorities clear and invest in those initiatives that have the greatest development return.
On corruption, he said itis surprising that the country is still struggling to fight the vice despite President Peter Mutharika been clear that he will fight the Mal-practice.
“We are still reading about new scandals almost every day, the investigative journalism in itself is a good sign. In this regard Malawi is a fine example for press freedom. However the follow up needs to be improved” He said.
Taking his turn, Minister of Finance and economic planning Goodal Gondwe conceded that the country is going through tough times but said government is working hard to reverse the situation.
He said it’s time to change some policies that are no longer relevant in the current situation citing the subsidy policy.
“We need to review the Farm Input Subsidy Program (FISP) because it focuses much on smallholder farmers and now we cannot only be producing for subsistence we need to sell our produce” He said.
The high Level Forum on Development was called on to allow stakeholders discuss a new National Development Strategy as the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy expires this month
