The Chairperson;
Honourable Members of Parliament;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is with great honour and delight, for me to address Honourable Members of this August House, here in London. I am advised that before me, are members of two or three Committees of this august Assembly. Therefore, I wish to tackle issues that constitute a mixed bag, and will hopefully address a variety of issues that are of interest to each and everyone of us by the end of the day.
Let me begin by appraising you that my Government, led by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), came to power, on 20 May, 2014, after emerging victorious, in a contest of 12 presidential candidates, in a Tripartite Election, the first of its kind in my country.
Honourable Members, let me confess that our joy and celebration was, however, short lived, because on assuming power, we were jolted by a painful shock, when it dawned on us that, our long established development partners, including the United Kingdom (UK), had suspended direct budget support to the country, as a reaction against the massive looting of public funds by some civil servants, colluding with other suspects, to defraud Government of huge sums of money. The racket came to be popularly known as the CashGate Scandal. The UK based Audit firm, Baker Tilley, was at the centre of un-covering this massive looting. This suspension of direct budget support, therefore, translated into an immediate cut of the support to Malawi’s budget by over 40%.
For an economy the size of Malawi, this was, and is a very big cut indeed to the country’s budget requirements. Since then, my Government is operating on a budget deprived of 40%. You can imagine the magnitude of the new Government’s efforts to deliver all the services on a cut budget of this magnitude. This being the case, I immediately instituted sweeping reforms to correct all the past mistakes. For instance, I came up with a cabinet size of only 20 Ministers, that includes myself and my deputy, holding Ministerial portfolios, from the previous Administration’s 40 plus,
Ministers/Deputy Ministers.
It was agreed that we would not acquire any new fleet of Ministerial vehicles, as had been the practice in the past, wherever a new Government and Cabinet is in place. Furthermore, in the previous Administration, each Minister was allocated two motor vehicles, a Mercedes Benz, and a 4X4 vehicle, at government expense. My Ministers only have one vehicle, and mostly old vehicles.
My Government has embarked on a wide range of public sector reforms aimed at making the public sector more efficient and effective. In the area of public financial management, my Government has introduced radical reforms aimed at correcting all the ills that were there in the past that led to loopholes in the system, which were exploited by those involved in the Cashgate Scandal. We have since sealed all the loopholes in the system, and no further siphoning of public resources is taking place, and will never happen again.
We are also pursuing all the suspects involved in the looting of public resources, and are all being brought before the courts, and so far, Government has won all the cases.
I have also assured both the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), and the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) that they must prosecute everyone who was involved in these heinous acts without selection. Government is also aggressively following up on all the stolen wealth of the State, so that it is all recovered.
My Government has also embarked on a wide range of public sector reforms aimed at making the public sector more efficient and effective. The aim is to make our fate into our own hands by opening up Malawi for business.
In June this year, we organized the first Investment Forum. This followed a compilation of a compendium of 127 bankable projects in various sectors, ranging from mining, energy generation, infrastructure, agro-processing, tourism, value-addition, among many others.
In the agriculture sector, Malawi is favourable to cultivation of cash crops such as cotton, coffee, tea, macadamia nuts, groundnuts, soya, and the staple maize.
In the mining sector, the country boasts of a variety of potential mineral resources across the country. It is endowed with a variety of minerals including, uranium, coal, gold, niobium, rare earth elements (REEs) and graphite. Geological data indicates that Malawi also hosts potentially large recoverable oil and gas deposits beneath Lake Malawi.
In the tourism subsector, the Government of Malawi is actively encouraging the growth and development of the tourism sector under the Strategic Tourism Development Plan, placing an emphasis on the development of ecotourism, the construction of international conference facilities, hotels, lodges, recreational facilities and the development of tourist camps around the country’s numerous hot springs.
The Government recognizes the important role the energy sector plays in industrial development and private sector investment in the country especially as regards, mining. We are, therefore, putting much emphasis in the sector by among other things, developing additional power stations? promoting the use of the renewable sources of energy? improving management of energy generation, transmission, distribution and supply and promoting public private partnerships in energy generation, and distribution among others.
We made a decision to attract and retain investors. There are a number of benefits for investing in Malawi. Some of the reasons why investors should come to Malawi include: Government is committed to ensuring that the country provides a business friendly economic environment. Malawi is one of the few countries in the world that is politically stable and with no history of civil war. The Government also ensures the provision of all necessary security for investment, life and property.
My Government is committed to take advantage of what is referred to as the Demographic Dividend, by investing in the Youthful population of Malawi. Malawi like most developing countries, has a vast untapped pool of youthful population of people below the age of 18. In Malawi, they constitute around 60% of the total population. You might be aware that I was appointed one of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) Youth Champions, last year. That is why I had the privilege to convene, a High Level Meeting on the Demographic Dividend, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, in New York. The purpose of which, is to focus on the importance of the involvement of our youth in all development planning endeavors, if we are to develop.
Among other initiatives, Malawi has introduced Community Technical Colleges, which will provide to the youth of the country, skills in carpentry, painting, watch repair, building, hair-dressing, and many other trades. After this training, the youth will also be trained in business management, to enable them repay loans obtained to set up businesses in the villages, to create employment for themselves and others.
The Government intends to build 193 community colleges across the country that translates into a Community College in each and every constituency, at the end of five years. The initiative has received support from the International Labour Organisation (ILO); the World Bank; Germany Government; and others.
In all these development efforts, I have not forgotten the role of all women. My Government is fully committed to give women their rightful place in the development agenda of the country, by including them in decision making positions, both in the public and private sector. We are also cognizant of the challenges the girl child faces in acquiring education. Challenges such as inadequate sanitation facilities at school, inadequate boarding facilities, and cultural traditions that disadvantage the girl child in acquiring the much needed education.
In this regard, the Honourable House may be interested to learn of the First Lady’s initiative to build boarding facilities for girls, to enable them sleep at the school, as opposed to travelling long distances to get to school. Her Excellency the First Lady Madam Gertrude Mutharika, through her Beautify Malawi Trust (BEAM), raises funds through various ventures, such as charity dinners and dances, to collect money that is used to build these sanitation and boarding facilities for the girls.
Let me at this juncture, invite you to visit us in Malawi and for those interested to come and invest in the ‘Warm Heart of Africa’, where I assure you as President of the Republic of Malawi, that, your investment and indeed yourself as a person, are assured of perfect security in the country.
Last, though by no means the least, let me thank Her Majesty’s Government for organizing this meeting and for all the support the United Kingdom continues to render to Malawi. We look forward to continued assistance from Her Majesty’s government.
I thank you very much for your attention.
