statement by president arthur peter mutharika at the official opening of the 27th malawi...
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Statement by President Arthur Peter Mutharika at the official opening of the 27th Malawi International Trade Fair on 22 May 2015 – Chichiri Trade Fair Grounds, BlantyreTRANSCRIPT
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REPUBLIC OF MALAWI
STATEMENT BY
HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. ARTHUR PETER
MUTHARIKA,
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALAWI
AT THE
OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE 27TH MALAWI
INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR,
ON
22ND
MAY 2015,
CHICHIRI TRADE FAIR GROUNDS, BLANTYRE.
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Your Excellency the First Lady of
the Republic of Malawi, Madam
Gertrude Mutharika;
Your Honour the Vice President,
Saulosa Klaus Chilima and
Madam Chilima;
The Minister of Industry and
Trade, Hon. Joseph
Mwanamvekha, M.P.;
The Chief Secretary to the
Government Mr. George
Mkondiwa and all senior
government officials;
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Mr. Arthur Chirwa,Deputy
President of the Malawi
Confederation of Chambers of
Commerce and Industry
(MCCCI) and the rest of Business
Captains;
All Members of the Diplomatic;
The Mayor of the City of
Blantyre, Councillor Noel
Chalamanda;
Distinguished Invited Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
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It gives me great pleasure to be
here this morning to officially open
the 27th Malawi International Trade
Fair, under the theme Achieving
Regional Integration through
Trade.
At the outset, let me thank the
President of the Malawi
Confederation of Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (MCCCI)
for inviting me personally to
preside over this important
function.
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Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
My Government recognizes the
importance of regional economic
integration in achieving our
national economic goals through
private sector development,
industrialization, and export led
growth and development. The
theme for this years trade fair
Achieving Regional Integration
through Trade is therefore,
pertinent and relevant to my
Governments policies and efforts
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on regional economic integration. I
am saying all this because no
country in the world has grown on
its own without participation in the
global village and Malawi is no
exception. It is through
participation in the different
regional economic integration
initiatives that small countries like
Malawi will grow.
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and
Gentlemen
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This years Trade Fair, is also about
celebrating and supporting
Malawians who are showcasing
their products despite numerous
challenges that they face. I say well
done for participating in this
important activity. My Government
is committed to facilitating the
hosting of such annual Trade Fairs.
It is through such fora that we sell
Malawi to potential investors and
trading partners. We, therefore,
need to embrace trade fairs as one
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platform to showcase products and
learn new ways of doing business.
In this regard, I would like to urge
all Malawians to take this event
seriously and to urge public officers
in Government to provide the
necessary support to participants in
such events.
Distinguished Ladies and gentlemen
Having gone through the stands in
this fair, I have noticed that there
are many Small and Medium
Enterprises participating in this Fair.
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My Government recognizes the
importance of SMEs and
entrepreneurship as drivers of
economic growth and poverty
reduction.
Let us support our SMEs by buying
Malawian products. In so doing,
we will be promoting and
encouraging industrialization
thereby creating jobs and reducing
the structural trade deficit.
In addition, I would like to
encourage large companies to
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develop business linkages and
support SMEs by buying and
procuring goods and services from
SMEs and entering into smart
partnerships with them. In order to
ease accessibility of working capital
by these SMEs, Financial Institutions
operating in this country should
also develop innovative products
and matching grants that can grow
businesses.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
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My Government is aware that for
the private sector to flourish and
prosper, they need a proper
business environment and support
services that allow them to attract
financing, human capital, networks
and markets. The world has moved
towards trading along value chains
across borders. These value chains
are important avenues for the
private sector to add value to their
products, to diversify and to
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innovate. They offer opportunities
for new producers, including SMEs.
Within the last few months my
government has been in office, we
have worked tirelessly to develop
policies and strategies to facilitate
industrial development in line with
the Malawi Growth and
Development Strategy. There is an
Industrial Strategy which is building
upon the agreed regional industrial
strategy and roadmap adopted at
the recently held SADC Summit of
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Heads of State and Government in
Zimbabwe. The strategy advocates
frontloading of industrialization to
stimulate economic growth.
Certainly, Government has a
greater role to play toward
implementation of the strategy if
we are to benefit from the strategy
and the onus is on all of us to work
in a collaborative manner.
Furthermore, COMESA countries
have also agreed to push for the
industrialization drive and thereby
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promote exports and economic
growth.
Distinguished Ladies and gentlemen
You will recall that Government
launched the National Export
Strategy (NES) which aims at
supporting the export
diversification drive. There are
many sectors in which Malawian
businesses have a real chance to
develop, grow and in time, export.
What the NES highlights is that the
Malawian people have a
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comparative advantage in trading
in oil seeds, manufactures and sugar
products, amongst others.
Therefore, both the private sector
and the government have to play
their roles towards ensuring that the
NES is fully implemented for the
benefit of the people of Malawi.
With the NES we expect to see
Malawian businesses in the
prioritized sectors grow, add
greater value to products, move up
the value chain, and
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internationalize in tandem with
consumer trends and demands. Of
course these are not the only
sectors where Malawi will excel in
the future. We are already working
on other existing sectors such as
services trade and mining to
complement the existing traditional
sectors.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
You may wish to know that
membership in regional and
multilateral blocks can help create
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increased markets for Malawian
goods and services, allow Malawi
to be involved at the negotiating
table as regional and global policies
are developed; and allow Malawi
to promote its needs and priorities
for trade related capacity building.
It is in view of these that
Government has recently
developed a Trade Facilitation
National Action Plan and
programmes that are aimed at
facilitating both national and cross
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border trade. These programmes
include the establishment of One
Stop Border Posts with the
neighbouring countries,
implementation of the Simplified
Trade Regime (STR), streamlining
of customs documentation and
number of customs agencies at the
border, the setting up of a Trade
Portal and Electronic Single
Window, amongst others. Let me
take this opportunity to thank
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donors for the timely support
towards such initiatives.
In order to promote
industrialization and export led
growth, Government is reviewing
the different incentives to stimulate
the growth of exports. This includes
reviewing all taxes that have an
impact on industrialization, exports
and stimulation of value addition.
In addition, Government is
developing Special Economic Zones
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Framework to promote value
addition through agro processing.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
To promote and facilitate
investment, my Government is
reviewing the investment policy,
established the One Stop Shop in
the Malawi Investment and Trade
Centre (MITC) which is up and
running. Amongst other initiatives,
Government produced a
Compendium of investment
projects last year in order to attract
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investment in the prioritized
sectors. I am therefore pleased to
inform you that on 29th and 30
th
June, 2015, Malawi will host the
first ever Investment Forum which
is expected to attract investments in
agriculture and agro-processing,
manufacturing, tourism, mining,
infrastructure transport, ICT and
telecommunication, financial
services and energy. It is expected
that more than 300 prominent
investors from all over the world
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will participate in the Forum. I
would, therefore, like to urge local
investors to take advantage of the
Forum by preparing bankable
projects which attract investors
during the Forum. As we prepare
for the Forum, I would urge that as
business persons let us engage in
meaningful and strategic business
alliances through public-private
partnerships with the view to
contribute to the development of
our beautiful country.
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Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
Government will continue to
implement appropriate
macroeconomic policies aimed at
reducing inflation and interest rates.
In terms of enhancing access to
finance, several programmes are
being undertaken including having
a fully functioning Development
Bank, provision of support to the
Export Development Fund, and
disbursement of Matching grants to
SMEs, amongst others.
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Distinguished Guests
The supply of reliable energy for
industrial development is vital to
Malawi. Government is fast-
tracking the regional sourcing of
energy, intensifying investment in
the generation and distribution of
electricity, and also the
diversification of energy sources
where renewable energies will be
promoted. This is fundamental
towards creating a strong
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foundation for development of
sustainable industries.
My government will also ensure
increased investment in research
and technology development by
allocating adequate resources
towards revamping the research
centres and utilization of
information obtained from these
centres.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
Finally, I wish to encourage the
local business community to take
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advantage of opportunities that
are available in other markets by
participating in the regional trade
fairs and exhibitions; this will
provide you a platform to integrate
into regional value chains and
overcome some supply side
constraints.
I wish to once again congratulate
all the exhibitors that have shown
exceptional skills in producing and
displaying their goods and services
and wish to encourage others to
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emulate the good example set by
their colleagues.
In conclusion, I would like to
reiterate that Malawi is definitely
on track moving forward. We
therefore must keep the
momentum so that we continue
building our economy collectively.
The private sector, particularly the
Malawi Confederation of Chambers
of Commerce and Industry, must
stop blaming Government for not
doing much. Time has come for the
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private sector to offer practical
solutions to address challenges that
the business community is facing.
The role of Government is only to
provide an enabling environment
for the private sector through the
policy and regulatory environment.
Government does not do business
and I therefore call upon the
private sector to be aggressive and
innovative in finding solutions to
the problems it faces. Instead of
asking what Government can do
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for you, the private sector should
be reflecting on what they can do
for Government because we are in
this together. We sail or we sink
together!
With these remarks, I declare the
27th Malawi International Trade
Fair officially opened.
I thank you for your attention.
May God us all and bless mother
Malawi