Lilongwe, August 13, 2015: President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika will not attend the 35th Ordinary Summit of SADC heads of State and Government scheduled to take place in Gaborone, Botswana from 17-18 August 2015.
The President has delegated Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Dr. George Chaponda to represent him and lead the Malawi delegation.
Briefing members of the Malawi media present at the Summit, Chaponda said President Mutharika has done this in order “to attend to other equally important and pressing issues that require his presence in the country.”
Chaponda said it has pleased the President to exercise prudence as Malawi is passing through a difficult period.
“Malawi is trying to recover from Cashgate – looting of public funds at Capitol Hill – floods, lack of budgetary support, basically we are on our own and the President decided that we needed to save money by having a lean delegation.”
He gave an example that if the President travelled he would have come with a delegation of over 30 people thereby costing a lot from the national purse.
Chaponda said in the meantime “the President has personally communicated to His Excellency Robert Mugabe, President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and SADC Chairperson, and the host President who is also incoming Chairperson of SADC, His Excellency Seretse Khama Ian Khama, and President of the Republic of Botswana.”
He said Malawi will apart from him also be represented at ministerial level by Dr. Allan Chiyembekeza, Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and water Development; Joseph Mwanamveka, Minister of Industry and Trade and Francis Kasaila, Minister of Transport and Public Works.
The Summit that will take place at the Gaborone International Convention Centre (GICC) has been preceded by meetings which started on 10th August 2015 with meetings of senior officials which ended on 12th August 2015.
The SADC Council of Ministers which looks at what has been discussed by Senior Officials for onward transmission to Heads of State and Government will meet from 14-15 August 2015 whilst the Heads of State and Government will meet from 17-18 August 2015.
Chaponda disclosed that among other things, the Summit will look at issues to do the SADC Parliamentary Forum, key Regional Projects, among them the Chileka Airport Rehabilitation, Kamuzu International Airport rehabilitation, the Green Belt Initiative and the Malawi-Mozambique Electricity Interconnector Project.
He particularly identified the interconnector project as one that is key to realizing the industrialization drive of Malawi as he said you ‘cannot industrialize and add value to natural resources and commodities without adequate power.’
He said Malawi is also engaging Zambia and courting other investors in the energy sector in order to increase energy capacity that is key to industry production and investment.
Chaponda concluded by assuring Malawians that government will do everything in its capacity to make sure Malawi gets maximum benefits from the Summit that all citizens can enjoy.
Said Chaponda: “It is the wish of President Professor Arthur Mutharika that Malawi becomes a self-sufficiency country one way of which is through active participation in Regional Integration Blocs like SADC.”
SADC is a 15 Member State Regional Bloc that aims at fostering closer regional ties through trade.
