By Edwin Mbewe
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Despite some efforts being put in place for years now for the country to improve on exports, it has been revealed that the country still depends on imports.
Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (MITC) Chief Executive Officer Paul Kwengwere revealed on Wednesday, April 5,2023 during the official opening of a two day Malawi Exporters Awards conference at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in the Capital Lilongwe.
Kwengwere said, MITC has organised the event to bring awareness to people about exports opportunities and how they can actually go into exports.
He added as part of the objective,they want people to be aware,understand the possibilities of exporting Malawian products.
“We would also want to tackle the challenges that are there so in these two days,we will basically be looking at different issues pertaining to exports so that we are able to solve some of the situations that are there. But more important to let people know that if they have Malawian product there is possibility that they can export it.
“As a country we are not doing very well on export. Actually for the past ten years the gap between imports and exports has been expanding, where the exports has been going down while the imports has been increasing,” Kwengwere said.
In his remarks Weluzani Chingota, Executive Director of Ecobank Limited, the headline sponsors of the event, said one of the challenges which exporters are facing in the country is linking themselves with the importers “because of lack of information where they can sale their products hence as a bank they have launched a product called Ecobank Single Market Trade Hub”.
Chingota said the hub links exporters with importers approximately 1.2 billion people from 54 countries across Africa, the customers just need to register on this platform.
He added that,the platform is secured as it is controlled by the bank and the customers are only required to register and link with those potential importers.
In his remarks Minister of Trade and Industry Simplex Chithyola Banda who presided over the official opening said,as ministry they are trying to come up with polices and legal and regulatory framework that will support those people involved in exports.
“We will create conducive environment for exporters. It is a major concern when Malawian product is declared not good for consumption on international market. Therefore to avoid this we have now state of art laboratory that is managed by Malawi bureau of standards and set to be commissioned soon,” said Chithyola.
Under the theme, “Rewarding Excellence, Unlocking Global Exports,” MITC has organised the two day Malawi Exporters Awards conference in partnership with Ecobank as headline sponsors, National Bank, NBS,CDH Investment Bank and Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS).
