Malawi President Peter Mutharika is back home from Ethiopia where he attended the 18th Heads of State Summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa-COMESA.
President sums his trip as very fruitful and is hopeful that the outcome of the deliberations at the summit will transform the COMESA region, into a fully integrated, internationally competitive, regional economic community, with high standards of living for all its peoples.
During the meeting The President held bilateral discussions with leaders from Rwanda, Egypt, and Sudan on top of other meetings with several UN officials.
The President said these meetings will help to facilitate deepening and enhancing regional economic cooperation and integration and boost Malawi’s agriculture, Information Technology, aviation and tobacco sectors, among others.
Malawi President can learn a lot from Paul Kagame of Rwanda who inherited a war torn country, upon becoming President Kagame prioritised national development, launching a programme to develop Rwanda as a middle income country by 2020. As of 2013, the country is developing strongly on key indicators, including health care and education; annual growth between 2004 and 2010 averaged 8% per year.
Kagame has had mostly good relations with the East African Community and the United States, while his relations with France were poor until 2009. Relations with the DRC remain tense despite the 2003 ceasefire; human rights groups and a leaked United Nations report allege Rwandan support for two insurgencies in the country, a charge Kagame denies. Several countries suspended aid payments in 2012 following these allegations.
Kagame is popular in Rwanda and with some foreign observers; however, human rights groups accuse him of political repression. He won an election in 2003, under a new constitution adopted that year, and was elected for a second term in 2010.
